Need help finding a nearly impossible feature combination camera

Scott_Quier

Here's a question I believe has not been addressed here!!

My customer (my day job, not photographic client) has a need to document results of ship-board inspections - looking at work that has been done on-board a large vessel. They want to purchase/use a digital camera. Criteria for the "perfect" camera:

• P&S, "all-in-one"
• Hardened - the users have no respect for the equipment (yeah, I know this is a hard one, almost an oxymoron) so a tougher camera is better able to survive in the hands of these gorillas.
• As always, faster glass is better than slower, especially as lighing is not optimum (ok, some spaces resemble a dungeon)
• The more capable the on-board flash the better. Don't need to worry about it being harsh. Bright is good!
• ISO from 50 to at least 400
• Noise is not much of an issue. The results are not going to be works of art and will not be enlarged beyond 8 x 10.
• 3x to 8x optical zoom, more is fine but not necessary. Should be in neighborhood of 17mm (in FF terms) at the wide end.
• They are thinking that the budget should be < $500, but that is just pulling a number out of an oriface - open to negotiation.

TIA - Any help I can get on this will be greatly appreciated.

Just to be clear, I know the above doesn't exist. I'm looking for a close approximation - any help will be greatly appreciated.

ziggy53

Scott,

One of my duties at my previous employer, was to document shipped goods, many times damaged packaging and damaged goods. Everything from banged up coils of steel to improperly loaded pallets needed to be documented for insurance and other records.

A P&S did not cut it (they tried film and digital). A polaroid camera did not cut it.

We wound up using a film SLR first and then later a dSLR (Kodak DCS460) and Sony F828 digicam. A decent external flash was a must for truck interiors and even the loading dock. A detachable flash would have been better still. High contrast was essential. Some close-focus and nearly-macro work as well. Occasionally I used a tripod and time exposure. Once I used an open shutter and "paint-with-light" technique.

I'm trying to intimate that some knowledge of photography and light was necessary for quality photographs. The photographer was at least as important as the equipment, but it took a while for management to figure that out.

The Fujifilm Finepix F30 is the first P&S that might have enough of the right qualities to do the job. I would also suggest a "digital" slaved flash to augment the onboard flash, but the lens and low-light capabilities are pretty awesome to start with. (Manual mode with exposure compensation and fairly good white-balance control as well as spot metering add to the special qualities of this camera.)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=423808&is=REG&addedTroughType=search
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=311151&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

ziggy53

Scott_Quier

Thanks Ziggy. I'll pursue this a little further, keeping your cautions in mind. You've given me a starting point and I much appreciate it.