Q&A: Best compact digital camera Choice?

by Karl Gunnarsson

Hello:

I firmly believe that unless the camera is small I will not carry it with me and I’ll miss the best shots. Keeping that in mind I am looking for the best digital camera that has a nice wide angle zoom and perhaps also offers the flexibility of shooting in RAW. In the past I’ve stuck with canon products and have been happy. Suggestions?

Answer by classic_tigger
I have a CoolPix P2 camera and I really like it. It has a large screen and some nice options for taking pictures.

Answer by Morey000
Panasonic has an excellent selection of wide angle zoom compact cameras. They’ve also all got OIS built in- which is good, becuase they’re not the best at high ISO shots.

Check out the FX01, FX07, FX50 series.

They have image quality which rivals some of the best, and the 3.6x 28mm wide angle zoom is one of the best in the biz. The lens is a Leica. Much better than the lens on the new canon SD800IS- which has some pretty serious corner softness.

Answer by Petra_au
Firstly, I don’t think that you can buy a compact digital camera that can shoot RAW (at least not that I know of). I also think Canon are great, and would recommend them before any other brand.
The reviews of the new Canon SD800 IS have not been too positive of it’s wide-angled lens. Many of these small cameras do have certain limitations with their lenses and wide-angle is yet to be perfected. That’s why I chose the SD700 IS instead.
For a very small compact camera…I suggest you look at either the new SD900, SD700 IS, SD600 or the SD630 (which recently won a European award for ‘Best Ultra Compact’)…the SD600 &630 are virtually identical.
A word of warning…don’t expect to get full manual control (aperture & shutter priority) with any of the compact cameras…they are designed primarily as a point & shoot.
For something slightly larger, but still small enough…look at the new Canon A630 (8MP) or A640 (10MP), both of which have FULL manual control…but no wide-angle. But they both have the flip out & twist LCD which I really think is very useful at times.
At this stage there are no other compact brands which have wide-angled lenses (such as Panasonic or Kodak) that would encourage me to buy them because of their relatively poor wide-angled performance and/or poor photo quality.

Answer by MeFikrah
When I started photographing I used
Sony F828
http://www.megapixel.net/reviews/sony-f828/gfx/f828-inhand.jpg

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Sony/sony_dscf828.asp

then I moved to SLR digicam

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cage


Image by Daniel*1977
Samsung digital camera

I want a compact digital camera with the quality of an SLR camera, without lugging around a big hunk of metal around my neck and looking like a tourist. Nahmean?

Answer by kegdawg_nj
The smallest dSLR is the Nikon D40. There are no small cameras out there that can match the SLR quality and features. The Canon G-series (G7) would be the closest but in my opinion would be a waste since you can get an dSLR for the same price.

Answer by GUNN3R17
its a physical limit on cameras…with current technology it cant be done…
bigger sensor gives better shots….
which require bigger lenses….
which require bigger camera bodies…

a small SLR or a “SLR like” camera such as the canon s3 might be a good compromise for you… but still don’t match a SLR(especially if your shooting in low light”

Answer by clavestone
I’ll agree with the first guy. There is no compact that is SLR quality, but the G7 by canon and I’ll toss in the F30 by Fuji come really close.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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