Compact digital recommendations

[Valiant]

Sony W series, I think I have the 50 or 70. Take a decent photo, are small, battery lasts for long enough and most of all they are durable bastids, I use mine with school kids and you can well imagine how they handle stuff. The video mode was good quality too.

[Biggsy]

If you want battery life you need to cut down on the things that eat batteries. The screen and the flash.

Viewfinders are great for preserving batteries.

That is a good point, but sadly only a small minority of compact digital cameras have an optical viewfinder now - and those cameras may not be as good as the others in other ways.

Carry a spare battery instead.

[redshift]

Just been on hols, and whilst I did manage to take my SLR + lenses, I forgot my Canon compact throw-inna-bag-and-take-anywhere camera.

I did a Hellymedic:  Bought a mag, picked a camera, and bought it.  At Jessops.  It's a Canon IXUS 90 IS.

Points to note:  It does not have a viewfinder, and it has limited manual modes.  It's the size of a fag packet but with a big screen, robust metal construction, fast to start and has good colorimetry.  It's exactly what I want for the take-anywhere camera.  If I want all the fancy stuff, I get the big gun out anyway. 

Oh, and Jessops were selling it as cheap, if not cheaper (Argos wanted another £50 for the same camera) than anywhere else I could get it on holiday. 

[hellymedic]

My Ixus 70 does have a viewfinder.
Mum has a Panasonic which seems S-L-O-W.
I like my Ixus' speed (autofocus off most of the time) light weight and general compatibility with much other hard and software at home.
There is little compatibilty between any of my parents' equipment.

I bought my Ixus from Amazon.

[Sergeant Pluck]

I think I've decided. 

[Adrian]

And?

[Sergeant Pluck]

I know there are more recent incarnations, but I am leaning towards the Panasonic FX35:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2008/06/27/Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-FX35/p1

The FX35 has better image quality but only 4X zoom compared with the later FX37.

My only misgivings are that is not as easy to handle as let's say the Panasonic TZ5 - but the latter is a lot more bulky. Of the larger compacts I've looked at, the Nikon P5100 is the nicest to handle but again it is not truly pocketable and the Lumix TZ5 seems to have the better image quality overall.

I am keen on having the relatively wide angle lens the two Lumix offer (25mm). I am not convinced of the usefulness of the 10X zoom on the TZ5.

So it is a question of ease of grip and handling versus true pocketability.

I didn't really like how the various Ixus I looked at sat in the hand.

Can you sense that I am still some way from the "buy it now" button? 

[Frenchie]

Looks good.

I bought a Fujifilm E900 2 years ago and really like it.

[andrew w]

There's a detailed and not-so-glowing review of the Panasonic FX35 here:

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35 Digital Camera - Review - The Imaging Resource!

Andrew

[Sergeant Pluck]

Sensor noise is often mentioned - bit of an issue with all compact Panasonics, it seems, and indeed most compacts with lots of pixels in relation to the size of the sensor.

It seems that all of these cameras, despite great strides, each have their weakness.

There's a detailed and not-so-glowing review of the Panasonic FX35 here:

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35 Digital Camera - Review - The Imaging Resource!

Andrew

Difficult one. Most of the other reviews I've read rate it highly - indeed better than the more recent FX37 in terms of noise.

I guess I simply have to choose on the basis of what I'll use it for most - so, for instance, I am not bothered by poor flash performance as I rarely use that.

[Rob S]

Quite interested in the Panasonic LX3, looks rather promising. Saw that Leica are bringing their own badged version of the same camera and the Leica section of the DPR forums contained some great gems about how this would be far superior to the Panasonic version and would justify the £120ish difference in price!!

[Sergeant Pluck]

I was looking at the LX3 yesterday. It is really well put together and has had some good reviews.

But:

1. 24mm to 60 mm equivalent. I'm wondering if 60 is a little limited. It's a camera for getting up close to the subject.
2. Lens cap! Arrggh. Total pain in the arse in a compact camera.
3. I like the camera - and I am still slightly tempted by it - but the upcoming 4/3 standard is going to make all of these cameras old hat very soon and with that in mind I don't want to spend £300.

[Biggsy]

Re the lens cap: Retracting lenses are also a bit of a pain.  Takes up some time and power, and is something else to go wrong.

How about the LX2?  Not too good in low light, but otherwise very interesting.  Goes down to 28mm equiv, has manual modes and RAW.

[Sergeant Pluck]

If I was going to go for that sort of thing I'd probably go for the Canon G9 or maybe the Nikon P5100.

[Biggsy]

They're quite a bit larger, though, aren't they?

[Sergeant Pluck]

The G9 is, yes, but the P5100 is more or less the same size (overall) as the LX3. The P5100 looks, in pics, as if it is sort of SLR sized but in reality it is very neat. Has quite a bulky grip on it but it is really nice to hold - would be good for a one-handed shot especially as its weight would help you keep a steady hand.

Choices choices.

[Biggsy]

Thanks for that.  I hope to eventually like to get something like that myself to fill the gap between my tiny Pentax Optio S5i and my chunky Pentax K10D dSLR.

[Sergeant Pluck]

I've been reading the reviews for that kind of "in-between" product too. It seems, in general, that the G9 is the pick of the bunch.

That P5100 is a really lovely thing to handle though  ... but it seems they have not got it quite right. Distortion at the wider end of the zoom range for instance.

[Biggsy]

G9 only goes to 35mm equiv, and I don't think the P5100 does RAW.

I do quite fancy an LX2.  It's not much bigger than my Optio, but would be step up technically in a number of ways.

[Sergeant Pluck]

What about the Ricohs and Sigmas, if you are thinking along those lines?

[Biggsy]

I will have to look more into those.  I would consider anything that goes as wide as '28mm' and has Av and RAW modes, and can be bought for less than two hundred quid (second-hand if nec).

No rush for me, though, as I don't have that two hundred quid spare yet!

[Sergeant Pluck]

If I mither much longer I won't have the £200 to spare either 

I think it is down to the FX500 and the FX35...

Compactness vs more manual control.

[Biggsy]

I look forward to hearing about whatever you get anyway.  You certainly do your research very thoroughly!

[tonycollinet]

I bought the fuji z10 a couple of years ago. Battery life is amazing - we've probably only charged it 5 times in 2 years.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Now here is an odd thing. The top of the range, recently produced multi megapixel Panasonic Lumix FX500 vs the camera I have at the moment, the Fuji F30 from a few years ago.

To me the F30 has clearly produced the better shots - take a look at the "outdoor" and "real life noise" comparisons:

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_DMC_FX500_FX520/outdoor_results.shtml

One thing that my recent reading on this has made very clear is that even the best regarded of the recent compacts are producing what appear to be very noisy images generally.

I'm just not totally happy with any of the choices I have found at the moment, in terms of sharpness and noise.