A compact with RAW - only the Canon S70?

[bka314]

I'm one of the "always-carry-the-camera" guys, and found myself to miss a lot of shots simply because my camera was hard to reach (it's big, so normally it's in my backpack). Also, I would like to shoot raw.

So I'm looking for a relatively small camera (pocketable) with raw option. Is it really real that the Canon S60/S70 are my only choice?

thanx,
Kris

[Bluedog]

I'm pretty sure the Fuji E550 does RAW but not the best camera for it.

[Jack C]

Hello bka314,

For me a pocketable camera is anything under 200g and almost the size of a credit card. Currently, there are no pocketable cameras that small and light with RAW. If you are willing to wait about 6 months to a year, then I think the digital camera companies will be able to come out with a compact camera with the RAW feature which will take respectable photos. But, you may have to pay a heavy price premium for it.

The big problem I think is that RAW takes a lot of memory and it takes a lot of time for the camera to record the photo. The small camera may take 10 seconds process the picture taken in RAW because of the small electronics. While you wait for the camera to process, you may also miss another great picture.

I always carry a camera with me and it is always in my jacket pocket or shirt pocket. I took many point and shoot photos with my small Pentax S50 and never missed any shots since I got it. For me, jpeg photo formats are fine with me when taking incidental photos. The pictures come out fine when printing in a size less than 10x15.