compact with some manual control & good images

[katerpillar2]

Hi,

Ive spent many hours already looking for the perfect digital camera and still no luck, so Im hoping someone can give me a hand here.

I have used a manual camera before, so I like to have some control, which could be just aperture and speed but Im not looking for an SLR. Id like a machine as compact as possible, that I can take on a night out, or as a tourist, but also that can allow me to experiment now and again.

Image quality is important, body style doesnt matter to me. Shudder control would be a real bonus, as would a lense that goes down to 28 (but I see there are not lots of those). I wont be taking videos very often.

I noticed the G7 but thats a bit over my price range. Any help would be very appreciated as my head is starting to spin with all the pro's and con's and reviews Ive been reading.

Thanks

[coldrain]

The Canon S80 has a very good wide angle zoom lens and it is compact, it also offers manual controls you want. If you can track it down it will be a worthwhile camera for you. It is quite a bit better than the Panasonic/Leica wideangle cameras like the LX1/LX2 image quality wise, and its lens is of better quality (less barrel distortion).

If you can find it it should be a bit below the price of the Canon G7, it is more compact and all in all a very good camera.

The Pana/Leicas mentioned above are the other contenders, but their noisy processors and their crap internal processing do not reach the level of the Canon G7/S80 in image quality.

S80 review by Jeff Keller:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_s80-review/

LX2 processing/sensor compared to S80:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasoniclx2/page9.asp

dpreview's S80 review:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons80/

The information about the barrel distortion of the LX1/2/D-lux 3 comes from the magazines ColorFoto and Foto Magazin, I can't provide you links to them.

The Canon S80 is better than other 28mm zoom compacts at night, but do not expect amazing results (it is not a DSLR and it does not have a Fuji sensor) at high ISO, so flash is what you will need to use (or a long exposure with support). Image quality wise it is your best choice.

[speaklightly]

Kate-

A lot of folks who are interested in the Canon G-7 are also looking closely at the Canon A-710IS, which some have called a "mini G-7."

Here is a link to Jeff's review of the A-710IS:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a710-review/

Speaklightly

[coldrain]

The Canon A710IS speaklightly mentions is a very nice camera, but it does not go down to 28mm (only 35mm).

[katerpillar2]

Thanks very much for your ideas :). I will definitely look for the s80 which looks ideal and only seems to miss the stabilisation, which seems like an exta anyhow.

Ill also check out the A-710IS as even though it's lense starts at 35mm, the manual controls are more important to me than range.
Do you know of any others machines that start at 35mm and have manual controls?

I saw a small camera by samsung, the Digimax NV10, has anyone tried this camera? It seems to have some manual controls, but its also small, weighing only 149g.

Kat

[sjseto]

Do you know of any others machines that start at 35mm and have manual controls?

The Fuji F30 and F31fd are definitely worth a look. Their lenses start at 36mm but that is a minor difference. They feature aperture and shutter priority modes. Their main advantage is being able to take good quality, high ISO images, which comes in handy in low light when you don't want to use flash. They perform better when you choose certain settings manually rather than leaving the camera in full auto.

Other contenders are most of Canon's PowerShot A-series. I like the A710 IS that has already been mentioned by speaklightly. The 600 series is very good and feature the rotating LCD, but I find them a bit on the large size for portability. The 500 series is smaller.

The Casio EX-Z850's lens starts at 38mm but is very small and feature-packed. Noise levels tend to be high above ISO 100 but apparently this is much more visible in night shots than in images with more light.

Sony has the W100 which again has a lens that starts at 38mm and has generally good photo quality. In terms of manual controls it's more limited than the others, since there are only two available aperture settings at any given focal length.

I saw a small camera by samsung, the Digimax NV10, has anyone tried this camera? It seems to have some manual controls, but its also small, weighing only 149g.

It seems like a very intriguing camera when you look at the specs, but Jeff has this to say about the NV10 in his review:

"Photo quality on the NV10 was disappointing when compared to that other 10 Megapixel compact cameras (namely the Canon A640 and the Sony DSC-N2). While photos were well exposed most of the time and colors were accurate, the NV10's photos are noisy, even at ISO 100. And forget higher ISOs -- things go downhill quickly. The NV10 also has significant corner blurriness (worse than your typical compact camera) and moderate purple fringing. Redeye was also a big problem (though, to be fair, it is with most cameras in this class). Most of these issues won't matter if you're making small prints, but if there are cameras with lower noise and less corner softness, then why would you choose the NV10?"

Stephanie