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Digital compact zooms w/full manual control

J

Jangla

feel the panic?
I'm going to be in the market for a new camera soon (redundancy payout - woo hoo!) and while I know what I would buy if I had a very limited budget, I've no idea what's good if I had more to spend.

I'm looking for something with:
Full manual control (or as close as possible)
Zoom - 3x optical minimum
Good selection of auto shooting modes
Good quality lens
Very low shutter lag - pretty important as it will be used to take action shots

Adside from the major wants above, it would be nice to have good battery life, robust construction and at least 5 mega-pixels.

So what's out there? So far I'm leaning towards either the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P200 (excellent features all round) or the Ricoh Caplio GX8 (with the quickest start up and shutter release times avilable) but would be interested to hear other's opinions.
 
Jangla said:
Nice camera but it's too big and too heavy. Not really looking for one of the SLR shape cameras unless it's considerably smaller.
Click to expand...

You'll be lucky to get a full manual digital, that can do everything you want, and still be credit card sized.
 
Firky said:
You'll be lucky to get a full manual digital, that can do everything you want, and still be credit card sized.
Click to expand...
I know that - the two I posted earlier have an excellent level of manual control and, whilst not being 'credit card sized' (which I never said was a priority, I just don't want something as big as an SLR) are 'compact'.

I just wanted some other options.

tom k&e - thanks. Really like the look of the Pentax - hadn't considered them before. Again, the Ricoh's look excellent too.
 
OK - had a bit of re-think; my girlfriend has already got a compact which I can use whenever so 'prosumers' are back on the consideration list :D
 
Jangla said:
All the photographers on here and only one person can make a single recommendation?!
Click to expand...
What's your budget?
The Sony V3 is an excellent camera, but perhaps to large for your tastes.

The Sony W7 ain't bad either:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscw7/

If you're after a small camera with image stabilisation, take a look at the Panasonic Lumix FX9
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfx9/ or if you're budget's big enough, thhis one looks nice: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1 http://www.dpreview.com/news/0507/05072003panasonic_lx1.asp

There's also some great compact and reasonably priced Pentax and Canon cameras too.
 
I have an Olympus c5050 z. It has an f1.8 lens. Also lots of features and fully manual. However not made any more. Cheep second hand I should think. Oh yes, the screen flips up so you can shoot nicely from waist level
 
This is the one I have, it's a bit larger than your average small camera, but it seems to have what you are looking for (and macro too):

Fuji FinePix E550

It has a great battery life, by the way, comes with its own battery + charger...
 
That's more like it!!!! :D

Really like the Lumix series - been looking at some of them with interest.
Also like the FinePix E550

Ed - I guess my budget is around 400 quid to leave some cash for a massive memory card.

Ok, another question;
Manufacturers and general funtionality aside, what things should I be looking for or avoiding to ensure I get a good lens and a good quality sensor, for example? Generic stuff that, to the trained eye, can quickly seperate the wheat from the chaff?
 
If you want small, then I can recommend the casio EX Z750 - has 3x optical, full manual controls, very good movie mode, very good user interface. I got it as a carry-around-everywhere supplement to my d70 after reading the review here:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/casio/exz750.htm

Despite the full manual it's still a long way away from being a dSLR of course, but for something that fits in your pocket it's pretty good ...

Oh, and I'm new here. Hello.
 
Hi Jonathon - welcome to the boards

That author of that site certainly raves about the Casio - so much so that I'm going to investigate the thing for myself (I've recently sold quite a few photos so feel ready to spoil myself!)

Shame that zoom doesn't work in video mode and there's no image stablisation like in Panasonic diminutive FX9, but I guess you can't have it all !

There's other reviews of the Casio here: http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/casio/exilim_z750-review/
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/casioz750/
 
Hmm, well, can't say I've noticed any focussing problems. One thing I will say is that the LCD on the back, though huge, does tend to make everything look a bit fuzzy as it's not particularly hi-res, but once you download and look on the computer it's all fine.

Don't think any allow you to use the optical zoom while making movies, if they did the sound would be horrible, from the zoom motor ..

Jonathan
 
JonathanS2 said:
Don't think any allow you to use the optical zoom while making movies, if they did the sound would be horrible, from the zoom motor ..
Click to expand...
My old Sony F717 (excellent camera that) let me zoom away to my heart's content when videoing - and the new Samsung camera does the same too, although it is quite a rare feature.

I think I will check out the Casio though...
 
Yep, the F717 was a great camera - it was only the great silvery bulk and my need to take live action shots that forced me into replacing it with a Nikon dSLR.

It was one of the all-time great digital compacts in my book.
 
Really starting to like the look of the Casio's. Trouble is I made the mistake of going to their web site and now I'm confused at the array of very similar cameras they seem to have. The Z120 for example, looks like it has the exact same spec as the Z750 (although it seems to have DSP on the 120).
 
Sony have just announced an amazing new camera (see other thread) so I suggest holding back for a short while to see what other goodies they might have up their sleeves!
 
My understanding with the new casios just launched is that they are the same spec fundamentally, the differences are a smaller LCD screen, and the use of standard AA batteries rather than the custom rechargeable lithium type thing. So they'll be a bit bigger, a bit heavier, probably worse battery life, and a smaller screen, but will cost less.
 
I tried the Casio Z750 out today and was very impressed - huge LCD screen, fast focus and the quickest shot to shot recycling time of all the similar compacts I tried in the shop.
 
Ooh! Look at this beauty!

dmc_lx1-front.jpg


image01.jpg


8.4-Megapixel CCD, high resolution 2.5-inch LCD, 16:9 sensor aspect ratio, wide angle 28mm to 112mm zoom, image stabiliser, manual focus, AF/AE Lock Button, Composition Guide Lines (I like them) and, of course, a Leica lens.

Tempted? You betcha!

http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/lumix/lx1/
 
Looks nice, except I'm not sure about the sensor aspect ratio. Apart from anything would make buying frames for prints somewhat tricky, given that as far as I know it's not a standard frame size at all, just a standard tv size. You can always crop of course. Plus the movie mode is old fashioned motion jpeg rather than mpeg-4 ...

Oh, and.. no optical viewfinder? There are times, when it's too dark or too sunny to see the lcd properly, when having the backup of an optical viewfinder comes in handy.
 
Looks like it's a proper mechanical anti-shake rather than one of the silly 'call it anti-shake but actually just boosting the iso up and restricting shutter speed' things some cameras have too.
 
Yep, though they could do with switching voice-over artist if you ask me! If it had mpeg-4 I might have regretted getting the casio ;) What's the cost? I'm guessing not cheap.
 
JonathanS2 said:
Yep, though they could do with switching voice-over artist if you ask me! If it had mpeg-4 I might have regretted getting the casio ;) What's the cost? I'm guessing not cheap.
Click to expand...
I'm not bothered that much by the video format, but 848 x 480 pixels/30fps sure sounds impressive - it'll look great on a widescreen TV!

The manual focus joystick look to be something of an innovation too - normally trying to manually focus on a compact is an horrendous task.

It looks like it's going to cost something like £380 - a fair bit more than the Casio, but if it's as good as is sounds - especially the image stabilisation - I might be interested (I just sold another pic today so I'm tempted!)
 
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