Poll: A second camera?

[jennifer_pruitt]

Hi,

 

Thank you all for your responses below. This is a follow-up

question/poll.

 

If you had a digital SLR for 'serious' photos but wanted to carry a

small digital camera with you ALL the time (something that could be

thrown in a purse...not a backpack...and not worried about) just to

catch anything interesting you happen to see that day, which camera

would you choose?

 

I suspect I'm not the only one doing this and wanted to know what you

had selected. Personally, I am interested in spending under $300 but

am interested to see all answers.

 

Thanks in advance.

[hash]

I'd get a 2mp camera phone.

[rob_murray]

Many people do this with the Canon A610/A620 or the Fuji F10/F11.

[mr._smith]

"something that could be thrown in a purse..."

 

Canon Powershot SD300, Canon Powershot SD400, SD500, SD550. It depends on your budget and what you want in terms of camera resolution.

[Ed_Ingold]

I bought my wife a Fuji F10 because it was small (purse-sized) but has the features I would like myself - extremely short lag time (10 msec from a half-press) and good performance up to ISO 1600. I find the lag time in most P&S cameras intolerable. I forgive the lack of an optical viewfinder - these are pretty sad on P&S cameras anyway.

 

I haven't asked to borrow it yet. I carry a Nikon D2 nearly everytime I go out - a matter of discipline with a degree of compulsiveness. I don't want to say, "If only I had a camera..." Now if I could only quit saying, "I wish I had time to stop..."

[wickedmartini]

I'd agree with many of the posts here. My latest point and shoots are the Fuji Finepix F10 and F700. I would also recommend the Canon Powershot. I like a point and shoot that allows me to have as much control over the process as possible.

[godfrey]

My choice was the Panasonic LX1. Very small size, excellent lens, and it supports RAW

capture. Full manual control if I want it (although I use it mostly in Program mode and RAW

capture), excellent rendering, the image stabilization is great.

 

Discussions of excessive noise I find overstated. I've had no trouble making quality 11x17"

prints with it from captures with up to ISO 200.

 

Godfrey

[douglas_green1]

I recently went through this same set of decisions. Here's the ones I seriously considered:

 

Canon A610 and A620 5 and 7 MP 4x zoom, SD cards

 

Canon S70: 7MP, 28mm equiv WA lens, 3.6x zoom CF cards

 

Olympus C-7000: 7 MP, 5X Zoom, quite light & compact, xD cards

 

Fuji E-550: 6 MP 4x zoom, xD cards

 

Panasonic DMC-FZ5: 5 MP, has a great 12X zoom with IS

 

 

I actually couldn't decide, so I bought two of these, the Canon A610 and the Olympus C-7000, with the plan of keeping one and selling one after giving both cameras a serious evaluation. On paper, the A610 initially appeared to be the better deal for me, because it uses SD cards and AA batteries, but Olympus is selling C-7000 manufacturer's refurbs on the 'bay with full warranty for great prices (I paid $225 for mine, which is low enough to justify the cost of a big xD card). After testing the two cameras side by side this weekend, I decided that I prefer the ergonomics of the Olympus in aperture priority mode, as well as the image quality and that's the one I'm keeping. The Canon focuses faster in low light and has longer battery life, if those are important issues to you, but in every other key area, I preferred the Olympus or considered it a wash.

 

You might wish to make your decision based on if you already have big memory cards in one architecture or another. I originally passed on the Olympus for the Canon for that reason specifically, but the cost of the C-7000 given that Olympus is clearing out manufacturer's refurb units on ebay with full warranty overcame that objection for me. Check out the ebay seller ID: Olympusauctions

[jon_austin]

I have a 20D; my wife carries a Canon SD400.

 

If I were to buy a second camera for myself, I'd want one of Mike Johnston's proposed "decisive moment digital" cameras:

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/DMD.shtml

[peter_nelson1]

I have 3 35's, an RB67, a D100 and a 20D. But my lightweight, go anywhere travel camera is a Canon G6. Small, light, versatile, fast lens, decent to ISO 200 (400 is a bit noisy but better than many cameras of that ilk). Full manual control. Hot-shoe-mount. Less purple fringing than most of the competition (but still some). It also takes half-decent movies. And it also has INCREDIBLE battery life.

[andrew robertson]

I want a small carry all digital camera, but one that's good enough in low light AND has

great manual controls doesn't exist yet.

 

So, I bought an R-D1.

[rjacksonphoto]

I carry a Canon SD20.

[chuck_c_charlottenc_]

Jennifer,

 

I carry a Canon SD400. It's nice and small and slim. I can carry it in a jacket pocket, a pants pocket or even most shirt pockets. It's a great 'spur of the moment' outside camera, and a reasonable indoor camera for subjects within 10 feet.

 

I really like the small size. you may not be happy with anything larger... I wasn't.

 

//Chuck

[chris_chow]

Panasonic LX-1. Great lens. Great colour. Amazing image stabilisation. Stick to ISO 80 or 100 and work in raw mode to get best results.

[yi_fay]

<i>I want a small carry all digital camera, but one that's good enough in low light AND has great manual controls doesn't exist yet.</i>

<br>

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Ricoh GR-Digital?

[john schroeder]

I have a Nikon Coolpix 4300 and a Canon SD20. I also have an Olympus Stylus Epic film camera. The little Nikon Coolpix 5600 would be a decent backup camera. It's about $200.00 and has a good lens and some nice features. It gets good battery life from standard AA's and is small enough to store in your glove box.

[jason_vieitas]

Lol, I have a Rebel XT with 3 lens, and it dosn't matter where I go I pack that sucker around, it also seem unamious that everyone else here does too. If your looking for a smaller "digicam" you can just go with a slim point and shoot, or a larger one if you want the manual controls, get something simple, like a 3 or 4 mp, that you wont regret spending that money on a lens. I sell cameras so I can talk all day here but I would recommend the Fuji E550, 5.2 effective megapixles, 4 times optical, super CCD (octagonal pixles as opposed to square ones). Its pretty simple, compact, nice to hold, and still has manual controls for those who disire it. As well the shutter lag is significantly less then others. Go to dcresource.com and look up a few. Or just go to a store where they let you try them out.

 

-Jason

[ilkka]

Canon S500 because it is the smallest camera available that uses compact flash cards, same as my DSLR.