Small digital camera

[seb v.]

Hi

 

I haven't been around much and am a bit out of the loop when it comes to the

digital rollercoaster.

I'm a rangefinder user and want a small digital camera to carry about with me. I

was thinking of the Digital Leica/panasonic camera and I know the Ricoh GRD was

quite good last year but what's around now that's good. I want something I can

access manual controls with easily.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Seb

[marek_fogiel]

Leica M8, if you can stand the crop factor and magenta cast.

[jobo1]

The Ricoh GX100, although it's rather expensive. It lacks a shutter time priority mode, and the manual mode is "backwards" (aperture setting with the front wheel, shutter speed with a toggle on the back). Personally, I use aperture priority with Ev comp.

[asher]

Canon Powershot G9

[Robin Smith]

Canon G9 might fit the bill, but I've yet to see a real test of it. It's disappointingly small (to me - much like one of their A series) but you may like this. Good specs on paper at least. You need a good income to splash out for an M8...

[el_fang]

<i>I want something I can access manual controls with easily.</i>

<p>If by "easily" you mean SLR-like easily, then Ricoh's GR-D and GX100 are the only games in town as of this writing. Pretty much everything else that even has full-manual requires delving into menus (and in some cases, submenus).</p>

[bobtodrick]

I'd recommend the G7 over the G9, depending upon how important RAW is to you. I hesitated getting a digital (for color) right up till this year, the G series cameras being the closest I could find to a Leica. I feel that the G Canon's come closer to the Leica concept than any of the Leica (Panasonic) compacts. 10mp (12 on the G9), good heft (it's actually nearly twice the weight of the A series cameras), full manual and an OPTICAL veiewfinder, which I find indespensible.

 

I did test the G9 and what I agree with many of the indepth tests on the camera. 12mp does give it higher resolution...at the expense of noise. One of the major test websites came to the conclusion that the G7 was 'acceptable' at 400ISO, 'poor' at 800 and 'unacceptable' at 1600. The G9 dropped everything down one stop...'poor' at 400ISO and 'unacceptable' at 800...1600 was unuseable in their minds. I personally (and this may of course differ on what you shot) found the lowlight capability of the G7 to be more important than the RAW of the G9.

 

I agree with most of the reviewers out there...if they had left the G9 at 10mp AND added RAW they'd have had a killer.

 

The lens is very good. A 6x zoom, it's aperture range is F2.8 - 4.8. The majority of compacts are in the range of F3.5 - 5.6, a stop slower. With IS it is a good choice for typical Leica shooting. As well the lag-time is very good, in the range of 1/10 of a second w/o flash (it's main compeitor, the Nikon P5000/5100 has a lag time of about 1/2 sec...yeeech).

 

In all a very good digital in my mind...the only downside is it really makes one want an M8!!

[funkag]

The Fuji F10, F11, F20, F30, & F40 are considered Leica-like by some. They're smallish and offer usable 800 and 1600 iso's.

 

I know my F10 doesn't offer much in the way of manual control, but I think the later models offer more.

 

One downside vs. the Canon G's is the lack of an optical viewfinder.

[donald_ingram1]

There are growing rumours on dpreview Ricoh forum that the Ricoh GRDmkII will be launched

new week ( following on from Ricoh's announcement of the end of GRD production).

 

It might just be a predictable extrapolation from GRD to beyond the GX100 i.e. more Mega-

pixels on the same sensor size, IS and a RAW buffer. But there is still an outside chance it

could be more, closer to the original GR1 would be good ... certainly worth a short wait to

see.

[david_l3]

Leica M's are my favorite way of photographing. Then I got a Panasonic digicam. Generally okay but it has limitations and its lack of manual control limits its use for me. I've considered the cameras mentioned above, but none of them seem suitable. Oddly enough I'm thinking of a Nikon D40, relatively cheap, it will mount my old mf Nikkors, and I can manually focus and use sunny 16 to my heart's desire, just as I do with my Leicas. It's also one of the smallest DSLRs, and it shoots RAW as well. Heresy has its moments.

[g-man1]

David L, it's very difficult to focus manually with the D40's screen (small, no split image, and tiny green focus-assist light indicator).

[el_fang]

<i>Generally okay but it has limitations</i>

<p>Perfectly valid opinion but I'm sure most fairly experienced photographers who are shopping for small digitals already know this. Of course, there are <a href="http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6468-7844" target="_blank">others</a> who view such "limitations" as "features," taking lemons to make lemonade as it were, and go on to win <a href="http://www.nppa.org/competitions/best_of_still_photojournalism/2004/winners/still/index.cfm?category=MPY&place=1st" target="_blank">major awards</a> using tools that have unsurmountable "limitations" to the rest of us. To each his or her own.</p>

[david_l3]

I have taken hundreds of great photos with the Panasonic. In sunlight it does very well. The

problems occur in low light. Out of focus shots (and too slow to focus) are a constant

problem. The noise reduction turns images into mush. And I use exposure compensation

often to get the effect I want. I have done very well going off automatic - on a tripod, ISO

100, careful focussing, careful composition, studying the histogram, adjusting compensation,

and the usual techniques for maximum quality. But for simple point & shoot in low light its

automatic functions do things I don't want it to do.

[albert_smith]

<I>Leica M's are my favorite way of photographing. Then I got a Panasonic digicam. Generally okay but it has limitations and its lack of manual control limits its use for me.</I><P>

 

I have been using Canon A series cameras for a while now, and while I have never, ever used Program mode with film cameras, wanting to be in control of DOF for zone focusing on the street, it has become clear that this is less important on the small sensor digital cameras. At just about any f-stop (yes, the canons allow 100% control of every exposure aspect) focus is always deep. So now I let this DOF work for me and just shoot on program when doing Leica style street shooting.<P>

 

To Seb V., Just one more data point...I can recommend the A-series 620 / 630 models. Both have operated flawlessly for thousands of shots, and the prints right off of the SD card from my lab are shockingly good when I consider the price. Today, I would jump to the A650 IS, which has the same lens, sensor and MP count as the G9, but trades many features for the tilt / swivel LCD which will hook you on one outing with it.<div></div>

[jose_dalisay]

how small is small? ;) i'm very happy with my leica c-lux 2 as an everyday, pocketable point-and-shoot. for more dramatic scenery i use the somewhat larger leica d-lux 3. but if i want something tack-sharp then i go for my canon G7--heftier by far than both leicas but also chock-full of features. any of these, mind you, could fit in a (maybe baggy) pants pocket, even the canon.