Good action camera, but small

[fighterkyle]

Hey guys,

Me and my girlfriend are going to buy a camera together. she wants something that is small enough to fit in her purse and take with her. However i do alot of mountain biking and want something that takes really good action shots. we don't mind spending some money but we don't wanna break the bank, if you could help me out that would be awesome.

thanks
Kyle

[fighterkyle]

Thanks

ok here we go

-budget is about 400 dollars

-size=small enough to fit in an average size purse, new nikon coolpix is about the same size i am looking for

-Zoom is not incredidbly important to me

-image quality is about an 8

-camera will be used for mountain bikign outdoor action shots, and for parties and vacations

-occasional big prints but not often


hope that helps

[fighterkyle]

anybody out there, i could use some help

[speaklightly]

fighter-

Small is not always the best in terms of image quality!

Perrhaps, you can think a wee bit bigger!

Small is not always the answer! By going just a bit bigger, as in the Kodak Z-1012 at just $(US) 199.95 you willl get much better photo quality and image iquality for a bit more money!

Sarah Joyce

[mjsneddon]

Small is somewhat of a relative term. And I have seen purses that range in size from tiny to huge.

If small is very important to you, I suggest you consider the Canon SD series. The SD1200 is the smallest of that series, I believe.

Panasonic makes several camera that are small (but larger than the Canon SD series) which offer more in terms of "zoom action". The TZ7 offers a zoom lens that is quite wide (25mm equivalent) and zooms all the way to 300mm (equiv.) This camera provides only point and shoot operation. If you would like to have more control, the Panasonic FX580 might be a good choice. It (equivalent) zoom capabilities are 25 - 125 mm.

With a budget of $400, there are quite a number of choices available to you.

That's it for me for now. If something else occurs to me, I will pass it along.

Have a great day.

(One question: Who gets to keep the camera if the relationship goes south?)

[KCook]

With a $400 budget you are close to enough to buy two different cameras, so each of you gets just the feature set that is important to you. Then the question becomes which camera to buy first.

Kelly Cook

[AndyfromVA]

With a $400 budget you are close to enough to buy two different cameras, so each of you gets just the feature set that is important to you. Then the question becomes which camera to buy first.

Kelly Cook

If you buy 2 cameras it will make things easier for you and your girlfriend if you ever split up.

[tizeye]

Back around the holiday shopping season there was a group review of "ultra-compact" cameras like the nikon coolpix you mentioned. Some may have been replaced by newer models. Also, there wee additional group reviews of other catergories.

And the overall winners are: (tie)
Joint winners: Canon SD 790 IS and Panasonic DMC-FX37
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408slimgroup/