Digital compact for street photography?

[photoblogger]

Novice posting to a digital forum...

 

I've finally decided to try digital. I'm looking to buy a small,

compact, cigarette box sized digital camera to keep with me all the

time. I've spent the last two weeks researching various models and

am none the wiser!

 

My main criteria are

- Short shutter lag

- Fast power-up

- Ability to retain some manual control (mainly aperture for depth

of field)

 

I'm not overly concerned about sharpness / image quality (I've still

got my film SLR for that). It's more important to have a camera

that is always with me.

 

So far, all I can come up with is the Canon Ixus i. Am I missing

something or does anyone have any suggestions as to another camera

that may be suitable.

 

Apologies if this is a real newbie question.

 

Many thanks and all the best

 

Marcus

[david_fennema]

The Canon A80 has been so highly rated on these boards, that I made it my choice.

It's a bit larger than those Ixus models, but it's certainly not bulky. Mine goes with me

everywhere, takes great 4mp pics, and has a full range of manual and automatic

modes. Takes AA batteries, has a swivel LCD.... blah, blah, blah... I could go on and

on, but the features of this camera have been extensively covered on photo.net

already. Just do a search. Good luck! Oh, by the way, the A80 appears to have been

discontinued, but you can still find it some places if you look hard. A replacement

model should be on the way soon.

[Spearhead]

Where's Brad? Great street photographer, uses a two-generations old Sony digicam. It does have manual control, but there is some lag.

[dean_g]

Ricoh Caplio GX. 28mm f2.5 to 85mm (35mm equivs) Very sharp lens. Starts up in 1sec. 5meg. Aperture priority, or manual exposure. Ultra fast shutter response. ISO 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 (although from 400 up fairly noisy). All user settings are retained when shut down. Has a fixed focus mode(2.5meters "snap", or infinity). With fixed focus and manually set exposure there is _no_ shutter lag. Has a hot shoe. Very small and light (more pocketable than A80) . Black. Silent. Rather "classic camera" looking. Nice user interface. Macro as close as 1cm. Nice LCD, not the best optical finder (but I might mount a voigtlander mini 28mm/35mm finder on the hot shoe). Write times are so so, but you can fire off 2 to 3 shots rather quickly before having to pause for the cause (around 4 -5 secs). Still not that bad, it hasn't been a problem. Does a pretty nice job of being a digital Ricoh GR1. I love it, and I seldom use my 10D anymore. Take the GX out of your pocket, immediately fire off a picture, put it away, and move along. Best handling digicam I know of.

[leslie_cheung]

Dean, have you use the wide converter on the gx or have heard

anything about it elsewhere? I'm considering it since I shoot

wide quite often. Having a 20mm on a digicam could be great.

 

oh...the gx is a very nice cam for street shooting and for the price,

it is in it's own class imo.

[leslie_cheung]

>>>(mainly aperture for depth of field) <<<

 

Digicams have very small sensor and you won't really be able to

shoot for blurred oof area like dslr or 35mm especially on the

wide end for street photography. The GX have no raw mode.

There is a tiff mode however it's too slow to use imho.<div></div>

[summitar]

Second the Canon A80 or whatever will be replacing it. You can set two custom settings for the camera that provide very quick start up. Photo quality is excellent and the swiveling LCD is great. Also takes CF memory and AA batteries. There is a site whose name I can't remember, do a google on "canon a80 achtung" and you will get a great review with great advice. I only thing I wish the A80 had is a wide angle that went down to 28mm. You can, however, buy add on lens attachments.

[wgpinc]

I use the Canon G3 on the street quite a bit. It has a little more capability than the A80 which is a fine little camera, but of course the G3 is larger and has raw mode. All the P&S digitals have shutter lag. Makes you work harder to get the picture. I have seen great results with the Olympus 5060 as well. I have a couple of portfolios out on Photo.net made with the G3. Good luck.<div></div>

[grant_.]

how bout a d20?

[Brad_]

All small digicams have limitations. OTOH, you always work around them and still snag

interesting stuff. You get better by shooting a lot - so whatever you get, don't forget that

part. <BR>

<P>

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<img src= "http://pages.sbcglobal.net/b-evans/Images4/Web%208-14-04%20SF/image/

somethingsbrad.jpg">

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[dean_g]

>All the P&S digitals have shutter lag.<

 

Not completely true. The Ricoh GX has no shutter lag when set to manual exposure, and fixed focus. I believe the Canon G5 can be set up this way, and the Leica D2. And probably others. In autofocus and aperture priority the GX has almost imperceptible shutter lag (including AF time) under good lighting conditions. AF slows it down a bit when things get dim. Even my canon elph s230 can lock both exposure and focus and the "landscape mode" uses hyperfocal distance. So there's really no lag under those settings, the only problem being the S230 it resets all that when you power down, or if you accidentally touch the zoom control. That makes it hard to keep track of. But if these cameras are used 'manually', the Ricoh GX at any rate, they're as fast as most manual film cameras or dSLRs, as far as 'practical' shutter lag. Start up time shouldn't be overlooked either. I think that's as important or more important than shutter lag if you are pocketing your camera until the photo op.

 

I'd like to get the wide converter also. A picture of the camera with it shows it to be more compact than some other wide angle converters I've seen, however with the adaptor it makes the GX less pocketable. Still small enough for a roomy coat pocket though. I read a machine translated japanese review that mentioned the DW-4 converter and said it didn't compromise the image quality very much.. I think that's what it said.

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

Street photgraphy? I'd stay with film for depth of field control and because of better wide angle choices. Maybe a nice Leica or a Contax IIa or IIIa. Really quiet, too.

[gwilburn]

One thing you can do if your camera has manual focus and Aperture priority. Set the aperture to f/8 and focus to 10'. You'll have DOF from approx 3'- infinity. Leave it in this mode while street shooting and your shutter lag will be far less because the cam doesn't have to AF.

[photoblogger]

Thanks to everyone for your help / contributions. I checked out the G3, some of the larger Ixus', Ricoh GX and some of the Sony cams. I ended up buying an Ixus i. It's very, very small (fits in my jeans pocket and takes up less space than my cell phone) - down side is that it has no viewfinder (lcd display only), and few manual controls. Start-up time and shutter lag are good though.

 

The main bonus is that it's so small I can take it with me everywhere I go - so now, I can be out taking photos wherever and whenever: On my way to work, lunch break, coming home from a night out, travelling etc. etc....

 

Am having loads of fun playing with digital, the workflow is so much faster and I am only just beginning to appreciate how much more often this will allow me to shoot.

 

Digital is so different from what I've been used to with my film SLR - i just hope I don't forget my roots!!

 

Thanks everyone for your help,

 

Marcus

[photoblogger]

Just realised - The Canon Ixus i is the English name for the Power Shot SD10. Either way, it's a great little camera and I'm enjoying every minute of it!!