Compact for aerial photography

[Steffy]

Budget

-150-400$..

Size

-Compact or ultracompact (under 200-300grams)

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?

-6-10MP; I want as good high-ISO performance as possible due to fast moving aircraft.

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)
-Not important.

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
-9

Do you care for manual controls?
-Yes. Being able to set shutter time manually is a big + and manual ISO setting is a must.

EDIT: I'll also need to be able to set the camera focus to infinity by default so that it won't try to focus mid flight and I can get photos more often.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
-Aeerial photography

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
-Yes, I will be making big prints.

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
-Not really.

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
-Yes. Shooting photos from moving UAV.

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
-Nope.

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
-Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR, F100FD and F31FD are what I've come across so far but I'm not limited to these (and F200EXR is a little pricey). I've previously used Pentax Optio A40 but was disappointed by it's high ISO performance.

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
-Imagestabilization is required and wide angle would be nice also.

[David Metsky]

The Fujis are your best bets in that category. You say zoom is not important but are you sure about that? What are you taking shots of? If you really don't need much zoom and want wide angle, consider the Panasonic LX3. It's not cheap either but it might suit your needs.

[KCook]

Also take a look at the Sony W300.

Kelly Cook

[EvanBB]

Zoom is not very important in aerial photography because it tends to magnify the shake of the aircraft and produce blurry images. Getting a compact or ultra compact that has low noise at high ISO is going to be your biggest challange

[Steffy]

The Fujis are your best bets in that category. You say zoom is not important but are you sure about that? What are you taking shots of? If you really don't need much zoom and want wide angle, consider the Panasonic LX3. It's not cheap either but it might suit your needs.

-Thanks for your answer.. I quess I'm going for F200EXR then if no other good cameras pop up since I'd recon that F100FD doesn't have enough manual settings. ... and it's just like EvanBB said; zoom is pretty much useless while aloft - I'll rather just make the airframe fly lower if greater map resolution is required. I'm taking my ortophotos off of a small 3m UAV so that's why I'd rather use compact although dSLRs could also be used (but it'd shorten flight times considerably).


Also take a look at the Sony W300.

Kelly Cook


-Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out although the high MP count is not giving me too high hopes...


- -. Getting a compact or ultra compact that has low noise at high ISO is going to be your biggest challange


-That's true.. I'd require good picture quality with atleast ISO800 and preferrably with ISO1600 aswell which seems to be too much to ask for even for cameras with lower MP count. It's a pity that one can't find F31FD for sale anymore.

[KCook]

The other difficult requirement will be fixed focus at infinity. I would not assume that all of these cameras provide that. Unfortunately the usual spec sheets gloss over this.

Kelly

[KCook]

While looking over a new Sony W230 I noticed that it provided a few fixed focus settings. Including infinity. I expect this is common for the Sony line.

Kelly