Digital camera choice help

Bruce

Leica have brought out a new compact which retails for the mid three hundreds. It 6 mega Pixel quality with a 28-100ish lens.

The advantage of Leica is the sharp lens.

Regards

Mick

A friend of mine has just brought a dmcfx01 and has has taken a good few photos in preperation for his next trip to NZ. He brought it more for the 28mm start of zoom range than the big clear screen and builtin antishake stuff, the pictures look quite fine. Web resource? not quite sure about that but sites like dpreview will give you all the numbers you will ever need to crunch as well as photos to judge the picture taking skill of both punter and camera.

Hope this helps.

The Leica CLux and the Panasonic FX01 are essentially the same camera. I have the Leica version and am very pleased with it. It has an excellent lens which is the equivalent of 28mm at the wide angle ned of the zoom, which is unique in this size of camera.
The OIS works very well. Either camera would suit you I am sure. The panasonic is quite a bit less: the red dot always carries a premium.

Bruce,

All the latest Panasonic Lumix cameras have Leica designed lenses. I have a FZ-7 which is great, 12x zoom, 6 Megapixel, fast start-up, fast shutter release and plenty of controls if needed. The quality of the camera is fantastic, with really sharp images in all sorts of conditions.

The Leica Mick mentioned is a rebodied Panasonic I suspect.

Jono

I decided on a CanonA610 recently, based on owning several Canon camera's before, and the fact they always seem to do well in reviews. Cost was also an issue.

Have a look at this site: http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

andy c!

I found this website exceptionally helpful. Includes picture samples (for at least some of the cameras). http://www.cameras.co.uk/.

Helped me choose my Olympus C-765, with which I am very happy.
James

Inner Farne, 1st June 2006:

Thanks folks, the plethora of models is really part of the problem, as is the lack of a local shop where I can actually pick them up etc.

Cameras.co.uk looks like exactl;y what I wanted to generate a suitable shortlist.

Perhaps you should consider either the Pentax W10 or the Olympus Mhu 720SW as both are waterproof (the Pentax to 5ft, the Olympus to 10ft). Both are only abotu 38mm equivalent at the wide end though.

Bruce, I know what you mean their are just too many to choose from but one that is not offered by cameras.co is the

quote:

Water, dust, bumps, and cold temperatures are no problem!
The compact Caplio 500G wide is much tougher than most other digital cameras. Durably built with reinforced glass shielding over the lens and strategically placed body protectors, it can withstand drops from heights of up to one meter*. JIS protection grade 7 allows shooting in the rain or underwater to a depth of one meter, and JIS protection grade 6 prevents small particles from entering the body at dusty construction sites. You can even shoot at temperatures as low as -10 centigrade.

This laughs at dust and rain and has a zoom range 28-85, might be worth a punt if and only if you require these features.

...or perhaps I should have put the roof on the car BEFORE the downpour started.

I usually use a really good CCS camera case which has protected my kit over the years against most abuse-on this occasion I left it at home and the camera was in the footwell in a small puddle for a while.

Friend of mine has a Panasonic Lumix (I forget which one), one of those with the Lieca lens. V. Good camera if the results are anything to go by (can't vouch for the ergonomics), the only two minuses as I see it are a.) it aint that compact and b.) electronic viewfinder, my mate 'chimps' rather than use the EVF.

Whatever you choose, get to hold the ones you shortlist to save any nasty surprises.

Can anyone recommend an ultra compact digital camera with a high iso rating? Would love something that could fit in my pocket for going to gigs.

quote:

Originally posted by Alan Paterson:
Can anyone recommend an ultra compact digital camera with a high iso rating? Would love something that could fit in my pocket for going to gigs.

Small compacts are generally poor (i.e. very noisy and tending to lose detail) at higher ISO ratings due to the small sensor size so it'll come down to what sort of quality is acceptable to you.

My concern with most of these smaller designs even in with todays technology is the time between pressing the button and the damn thing taking a picture. For that you really need to pick on up.

Alan
I have used my Leica Clux with some success this year. Will try to resize and post a few examples. The Pansonic FX01 is essentially the same camera for less cash.
Not every shot works but the OIS is a real boon. There is some noise in the JPGs but in all honesty no worse tha n I used to get using ISO1600 or even 800 colour film.

Are the Leica/Panasonic digitals that popular [looking at the recs in this post]...???

i was going to suggest the 555 option which would be the forthcoming Leica M8 [digital] but i guess that won't be so helpful [but will be costly enough to preclude any hi-fi upgrades for a year or so]

Leopold

Bruce

Don't buy anything before checking this out

Good luck

Doug

Anyone own a Ricoh Capilo digital camera?

The new R4 has a 28-200mm lens and is astonishingly compact. 6 megapixels. Simple to use but some control over metering/focus that i want.I think the lens appeared in others in the 'R' series. It has a form of image stabilisation too-pretty good idea with this lens.

The other I've seen and liked was Pansonic TZ-1, 35-350mm lens, again ridculously small. Has optical image stabilistaion, 5 megapix.

Bruce

I played with the Caplio R4 a couple of weeks ago. It felt rather cheap and flimsy to me. The lens is what attracted me (28-200). Turns out it's a bit soft in the corners at extremes however, as you'd expect I guess.

I chose to buy myself a bridge camera - the Canon Powershot 3is with 36-432mm (2.8-3.3) lens. Still has a little (microscopic?) chromatic aberration, fabulous handling by comparison to a compact and loads of modes between manual and fully automatic. A friend of mine has just bought the new Canon compact 800is. Beautifully made, really nice casework, good handling for a compact, aperture and shutter priority modes (no manual), 35-140mm fast lens. Definitely one to check out. About £300 on the net.

Thanks Frank

I looked at the Canon S3, I disliked the handling! Buttons everywhere that I wanted to put my fingers and a quite small and dull screen. I've no doubt the lens will be gorgeous (and the zoom felt very slick) but I really want to keep the compact shape rather than the 'SLR' shape.

My shop did not have the 800is yet.