Fun, wide-angle, compact camera

<p>I'm looking for a camera to be able to carry everywhere. Something cheap is great, doesnt need to have good quality - in fact, if it had a unique, (typically) undesirable flaw, it might work for me. It just MUST have a wide lens on it - 20-35mm. I was thinking about trying to get a Leica copy and a wide Russian pancake lens, but if I dont have to spend that much it would be great.</p>

<p>Thanks in advanced.</p>

<p>Have a look at a Nikon Lite Touch 28 f/3.5 fixed lens 35mm point and shoot. Ebay item: 110669343394</p>

<p>I have one of those Lite Touches with the 28/3.5. It's a great small camera. Nearly indestructible (it goes mountain biking with me and has survived more than a few crashes), sharp, and pocketable. I made a bootlace strap for it. One thing to keep in mind: The lens has a lot of fall-off, specially in low light. With print film this is bearable, but not with reversal films.</p>

<p>In one of those crashes, water ruined the little protective eyelid that closes over the lens, so in a Flinstones engineering moment, I used a friend's forceps and (do not try this at home) <em>yanked the blades off</em>. The camera works perfectly now.</p>

<p>Compact cameras with lenses wider than 28mm are quite rare and expensive.<br>

The Ricoh GR21 has a 21mm lens. The Fuji natura has a 24mm lens.<br>

There are a few toy cameras though.. the lomo fisheye. or the vivitar Ultra-Wide has a 22mm lens but is made like a toy.<br>

Only a few have 28mm non-zoom lenses.<br>

There is the nikon lite touch as mentioned above, the nikon fun touch has a 29mm lens. The Olympus XA4 (zone-focus), Ricoh GR1.<br>

A good selection of zooms: yashica T4 zoom 28-70, rollei prego 90 zoom 28-90, Minolta Explorer Freedom 28-75mm. But take into account the zooms have smaller apertures.<br /><br>

But at 35mm you have quite a few choices.<br>

If you want Auto-focus, I would recommend the Olympus stylus original for around $20 with its excellent 35mm f3.5 lens.</p>

<p>Another fun camera is the Olympus XA rangefinder with a 35mm f2.8.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>If 35 is wide enough, any of the Olympus XA family would work. The compact body and clamshell design are perfect for pockets, and I do indeed carry one almost everywhere, in bike bags, pockets, packs, etc. I am particularly fond of the XA2 as a no-fuss camera, although its nearly faultless performance might make it less of an adventure. The XA3 is an XA2 with DX sensing and better loading. The XA4 would be a nice one, with its 28 mm. lens and macro focusing, or so I imagine, never having laid eyes on one. </p>

<p>The XA2 makes pictures sharp enough to blow up to poster size when they're in the zone, and the shutter is nearly silent.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>In auto-focus Olympus also made the Stylus "Epic" which is about the same size of the original stylus but with a faster 2.8 35mm 4-element lens. I really enjoyed this camera; comes in silver or black finish. The Vivitar ultra-wide - as mentioned above- is another favorite, but is manual.</p>

<p>I've seen quite reasonable results from these, they're cheap and obviously a lot of fun:<br>

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/wide-angle-slim/<br>

Not exactly my thing, but it could be the sort of camera you have in mind!</p>

<p>One more vote for <strong>Nikon Lite Touch AF600</strong>.<br>

That camera delivers pictures of an excellent quality! Mine was everywhere, from Alaska to Greece as a wide-angle backup for mor serious equipment. I'didn't notice any vignetting, my example delivers pictures sharp from corner to corner, what suprised me in the begining.<br>

So it's not a cheap s***, it's very small camera with great lens and very good AF system.<br>

Here are few examples from my AF600: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/harlemshuffle/tags/af600/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/harlemshuffle/tags/af600/</a></p>

<p>Olympus also made a Stylus with a 28-80 zoom. Not too swift at f4.5 at the 28mm end, but has tradition Olympus clamshell body and is water resistant.</p>

<p>Rollei Prego 90. Sharp 28mm-90mm 2.8 Schneider lens. Multi exposure, Exposure comp plus the other bells and whistles ect... One favorite is the stop winding button which is key when silence is required.</p>

<p>Here's a photo.net thread about it. http://www.photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/002k5tVery Its much much less inexpensive now on the used market.</p>

<p>plus various user reviews... http://www.photographyreview.com/cat/cameras/film-cameras/point-and-shoot/rollei/PRD_84077_3108crx.aspx</p>

<p>Pentax Espio Mini/UC1. Very small, good 32/3.5 lens. Simple P&S, viewfinder is pretty tiny. Smallish annoyance that is typical for this sort of camera is that the flash mode (one of the few settings on the camera) is reset back to 'auto' every time the camera is powered off. The more easily found silver version's finish isn't particularly durable so wear areas will start to show through black.</p>

<p>I would suggest for you a Fujifilm Zoom Date F2.8 24-50mm P&S film camera (aka Fujifilm Silvi f2.8 in Japan). Very small, sharp lens and a joy to use. more than this, it has TWO shutter release buttons ( left and right side).<br /> <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4933041337_2277a1d9aa.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" /></p>