Professional Point and Shoot ?

[tim_drake]

<p>The Contax T3 with Provia or Tmax 400 is the best answer I've seen.</p>

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>Yeah, I love the flexibility of my Canon G9 but I can pull higher IQ from a scanned 35mm film frame from a Ricoh 500G and Fuji 160 S Pro film. For all out blow-'em-away quality, stuff a Contax G1 and the tiny Zeiss 28mm f/2.8 Biogon in your jacket pocket. That is a PRO point and shoot if ever there was one.</p>

[frank_b._baiamonte]

<p>The biggest problem I have with just about all of the digital point & shoots is the lack of a decent optical viewfinder. The one on the Canon G10 is really small, I think most of the others you just have to use the LCD. Personally I find that using an LCD just doesn't work for me. I looked at lots of compacts and P&S cameras, and then just decided to put my Pentax DA40 pancake lens on a much smaller and lighter body than the one I normally use (I chose a K2000 for this purpose). Sure I don't have a zoom, but it hasn't really been a problem for a package intended for those times when I don't want to carry anything more. I get 1,000 shots out of set of lithiums, don't have to carry a charger or worry about some little P&S battery draining to fast, and can get almost 500 shots on a single 2GB card. It makes a great camera to just have around all the time.</p>

<p>Can you just get one of Canon's smaller lighter bodies and, if you don't already have one, a 35 f/2.0 or 28 f/2.8 or something similar? You mentioned you shoot mostly primes, you may already have a suitable lens. The larger sensor of the dSLR should make a huge difference too.</p>

<p>That Contax G1 idea is not a bad one either though. I have a G2, and the lenses really are nice; I especially like the 28 and 35. </p>

[monte_johnson]

<p>I do not have the experience with the LX3 yet. HAd it about 5 days but I do believe if you shoot raw the images are better. I love it so far. For a small camera it is quite creative. It really shines in low light situations without flash.</p><div></div>

[jon_kobeck1]

<p>Wow, thanks for all the answers! I didnt expect such a heated discussion :)<br>

I will say, after reading all the responses that I think what<a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=4296659">J ohn O'Keefe-Odom</a> Said made the most sense. I will probably never be happy with anything substandard to my 5D and in fact I do plan to upgrade to the 5DII next year sometime. SO I guess I will just suck it up and carry it with me.</p>

[kendall helmstetter gelner]

<p>You can be happy. You should take a look at the Sigma DP-X series - DP-1 for wide angle, DP-2 for more of a standard FOV.</p>

<p>These cameras DO have IQ that equals a "real" DSLR. The only weakness you find is the higher ISO results are not as good as your 5D but at ISO 100 they compare favorably.</p>

<p>The cameras have excellent lenses, great sharpness of results, good dynamic range and unlike any m4/3 camera with a good lens, are actually pocketable. The EP-1 is not a companion camera to a DSLR the way the Sigma cameras are, but a replacement - and you have no desire to rid yourself of a DSLR.</p>

<p>For an example of dynamic range compared to other compacts:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.seriouscompacts.com/2009/09/sigma-dp2-shootout-pt-3-dynamic-range.html">http://www.seriouscompacts.com/2009/09/sigma-dp2-shootout-pt-3-dynamic-range.html</a></p>

<p>(there are two other parts that are also excellent reads).</p>

<p>The DP-2 is an easier to use camera as it's a later design and also faster, but the DP-1 still takes excellent images if you have patience. </p>

<p>You can see a lot of example full-size images from the cameras here:<br>

<a href="http://www.pbase.com/sigmadslr/users_dp2">http://www.pbase.com/sigmadslr/users_dp2</a><br>

<a href="http://www.pbase.com/sigmadslr/users_dp1">http://www.pbase.com/sigmadslr/users_dp1</a></p>