Absolutely new to Digital Cameras....

I managed to sell of some of my Leica equipment in order to finance a 6x7

camera, now that these have become so cheap I had money to spare and wondered

into the digital era... perhaps late, but then again better late than never.

 

I spent a complete day at my favorite photo equipement supplier and tested just

about everything he had in stock, from large to small and from cheap to expensive.

 

Obviously I was absolutely flabbergasted by the results and possibilities of the

various setups. Having shot Leica M's most of my life (still do actually) I

wanted something compact, no DSLR with lot's of lenses and sensor dust and

things, I wanted something basic, simple, luggable and not to visible. On the

other hand I wanted to maintain a certain level of quality for some of the shots

I do, not all however, having a 1,5 yr old son you need to be able to make fast

shots of which the quality is not all that important, I also needed to be able

to shoot low-light for I do a lot of "life-jazz" photography in B&W mostly,

another must have was high quality detail for I also do "doors and doorknobs" as

well as details of architecture.

 

Anyway to cut a very long story short I purchased three digital cameras which

combined, cover the lot

 

A digital Canon IXUS 800is, for the family shots, small handy, does films and

the pics are of excellent quality fo such a size, and it has image stabilisation

 

Fuji F30 for low-light shote, this is really an excellent low light shooter and

small enough to always have with you, doesn't have a viewfinder though which wil

require some practice, but I am really amazed by the low-light quality of this

model, 1600 asa is not a problem, and the grain, digitalis call it noise, is

beautiful in the B&W mode

 

And last but not least a Sony R-1 for detail.

 

 

 

I know this might be an overkill, but each of the above stated cameras has it's

qualities, and all in all all three together are cheaper than any of my leica

lenses.

Not a bad idea to have one camera for each specific situation. The R-1 is fine but maybe a Pentax DSLR might have also been suitable (and you get interchangable lenses).

"I wanted something compact, ... maintain a certain level of quality ... shoot low-light ... having a 1,5 yr old son..."

 

Have you take a look at the Canon XTi/400D? Weld the 17-55 f2.8 EFS in front and you're done (or use the 35mm f2.0 for something even more compact and less expensive.)