Compact as a carry round for Pros?

graemefordham

Does anyone have a good suggestion as to a high-end digital compact that produces quality results without the consumer gimmicks as a carry round for a semi pro photographer?

Any help, needs to be small enough to be pocketable to fit the purpose and high in quality.

Cheers,

G

thebigsky

I've heard and read a lot of good things about the Ricoh Caplio GX100:-

Product Page

I'm probably going to get one.

Charlie

graemefordham

Just been looking at the Ricoh range as someone suggested it on another site (actually the 'Ricoh GR'). However, been looking around and researching this a bit the last hour and it's extremely disappointing that as far as I can tell there is at present only on CMOS sensor compact available (Kodak) although Canon revealed that they are to start introducing compacts with CMOS sensors sometime in the near future.

For my part I might well wait as I think it's probably only just round the corner. The Ricoh GR looks perfect except for the CCD sensor.Reviews all reflect this. After all if you're serious enough to want to carry a camera around all the time then you probably want the results to be worth doing something about, no?

If anyone knows any different please do post it.

Cheers, G

pathfinder

I think Canon plans to produce CMOS sensored non-DSLRs too.

I would love to see them build an APS range finder camera. Leica lens mount would be ideal of course.:D

The Canon G7 is a pretty nice camera except for the absence of RAW files.

The small Lumix cameras do shoot RAW - that is one of the reasons I have used the DMC-LX1. The files will be noisy at ISO 200 or higher.

thebigsky

Am I missing something, what's wrong with CCD's?

Charlie

thebigsky

graemefordham wrote:

For my part I might well wait as I think it's probably only just round the corner. The Ricoh GR looks perfect except for the CCD sensor.Reviews all reflect this. After all if you're serious enough to want to carry a camera around all the time then you probably want the results to be worth doing something about, no?

If anyone knows any different please do post it.

Cheers, G

Glad I made the effort to respond to your original post

Charlie

sirsloop

I've been pretty happy with my Lumix DMC-TZ3A. Its no SLR but it takes nice photos, has a huge optical lens, IS, decent ISO performance, and its responsive. There are a lot of "gimmicky" things in most of these cameras, but I think its just an attempt to dumb the product down for the masses. One recent feature thats really more gimmick than anything else is the facial recognition feature. Any pro knows to prefocus on a face (and not the wall)... but the camera does that for you and even puts pretty white boxes on the LCD that move around! YAY!


I think your goal cannot be to replace your SLR... cause there really is no pocket size camera that will. You're looking for something that you can slip in your pocket that is responsive and takes nice photos (low barrel distortion, noise, etc)

graemefordham

cheers
Thanks for the responses. Sorry Charlie, CCD sensors are smaller and tend to have the pixels packed together very tightly (especially at the high MP range - just a marketting gimmick really. for instance a 6MP CMOS sensor would out-perform a 10MP CCD sensor in any parametre you might care to compare) producing noisy results at higher ISOs as opposed to the CMOS sized sensors that are physically larger and produce a noticeably higher quality result. I'm no expert on these things clearly but have read enough articles to steer well clear of CCD sensors for serious application.

My usage will be as a 'carry round at all times' camera to be spontaneous when I wouldn't be carrying my SLR.

Cheers for all the feedback,

Vizhon

A good storm camera
Not the highest Image Quality one can find and not the most expensive in compacts (it's mid-priced), but if you want quality in the build of a camera you can toss in a pocket and never have to worry about damaging, I got the recommendation for you. When I went and got a P&S go everywhere camera, I really took the go 'everywhere' serious, as well as finding a character that could survive the harshest of conditions. At a decent (has some noise) 7.1mp, shock resistant to drops up to 5 feet (mine has a few dings in the case from drops) and waterproof to 10 meters depth, no bigger than a deck of cards and priced around $370, you can't find a better storm camera (what I call a go 'anywhere' camera) than the Olympus Stylus 770SW. Only things about the camera I'd consider flaws are a limit of 3x optical zoom and a noticible shutter delay.

thebigsky

graemefordham wrote:

Thanks for the responses. Sorry Charlie, CCD sensors are smaller and tend to have the pixels packed together very tightly (especially at the high MP range - just a marketting gimmick really. for instance a 6MP CMOS sensor would out-perform a 10MP CCD sensor in any parametre you might care to compare) producing noisy results at higher ISOs as opposed to the CMOS sized sensors that are physically larger and produce a noticeably higher quality result. I'm no expert on these things clearly but have read enough articles to steer well clear of CCD sensors for serious application.

My usage will be as a 'carry round at all times' camera to be spontaneous when I wouldn't be carrying my SLR.

Cheers for all the feedback,

I think you may need to re-evaluate your approach if a compact is what you're after.

Charlie

marlof

pathfinder wrote:

The Canon G7 is a pretty nice camera except for the absence of RAW files.

And a decent wide angle. It makes up for that at the long end though. It's just that I prefer wide over long.

When I was looking for a compact sidekick for my DSLR in the end, my options were the Panasonic LX2, the Canon G7 or the Ricoh GX100.

Since the Ricoh has a good 24mm equivalent lens, and can shoot in RAW, it's the one I went with. It has very good manual controls, but is a bit let down by the sensor it uses. The JPEGs have more noise supression than I care for, so I shoot in RAW+JPEG. Shot to shot times takes a few seconds, but usually when I'm ready for the next shot, so is the camera.

pathfinder

That is why I have stuck with my Panasonic LX-1 - Its sensor is noisy, but usually works pretty well out of doors in good light. I have 10x15 inch prints that are fine.

The G7 is very tempting, and the Ricoh sounds interesting, but so far, I have held off waiting for the new models to be introduced this fall or next spring.

z_28

I didn't found such camera yet :cry
But I still looking.
Will let you know

graemefordham wrote:

Does anyone have a good suggestion as to a high-end digital compact that produces quality results without the consumer gimmicks as a carry round for a semi pro photographer?

Any help, needs to be small enough to be pocketable to fit the purpose and high in quality.

Cheers,

G

Lee Massey

graemefordham wrote:

CCD sensors are smaller and tend to have the pixels packed together very tightly

Are you sure that you are not confusing "sensor type" with "sensor size"?

Many of Nikon's DSLRs use CCDs as opposed to CMOS sensors. For example the CCD that is used in the D70s (6MP) is physically larger than the CMOS sensor that is in the Canon EOS 30D (8MP) or the Canon EOS 350D (8MP).

It sounds like you want a large sensor in a compact body. That is something that many people have been wishing for... I am unaware of anything that is "pocketable".

Hope that helps...

Lee

ziggy53

Lee Massey wrote:

Are you sure that you are not confusing "sensor type" with "sensor size"?

Many of Nikon's DSLRs use CCDs as opposed to CMOS sensors. For example the CCD that is used in the D70s (6MP) is physically larger than the CMOS sensor that is in the Canon EOS 30D (8MP) or the Canon EOS 350D (8MP).

It sounds like you want a large sensor in a compact body. That is something that many people have been wishing for... I am unaware of anything that is "pocketable".

Hope that helps...

Lee

Lee,

You are quite right that it is more sensor size than sensor type that makes the difference. The Nikon dSLR sensors are many times made by Sony, and they use both CCD and CMOS (JFET-LBCAST) sensors in a crop 1.5x form factor. Even though the D2X/D2Xs cameras use the CMOS technology, the noise factor is not dramatically better than the CCD. (The Nikon CMOS is reported to be about 2/3 stop better in the professional D2X/D2Xs versus the consumer/prosumer 1.5x crop cameras.) While the difference is there, it is not a level of magnitude different, like you find looking at the digicam sized sensors (from any manufacturer).

Of course, the D2X/D2Xs does have a higher pixel density, so it is very nice that it is better, and that partly reflects a different design strategy of the Nikon CMOS chips.

FWIW, the Nikon D2Xs is still a very good value in overall performance and quality, even though it is starting to show its age.

ziggy53

graemefordham wrote:

Does anyone have a good suggestion as to a high-end digital compact that produces quality results without the consumer gimmicks as a carry round for a semi pro photographer?

Any help, needs to be small enough to be pocketable to fit the purpose and high in quality.

Cheers,

G

Do look at the Fuji F31fd. While the zoom range is a liile limited if you want a single do-it-all compact camera. it does what it does very well indeed.

It, and the F30, set a new standard for low noise at high-ISO in a compact digicam.

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=27977
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=45201
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=45446
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=514119&postcount=9


Keep your eyes open too for the Fuji F50fd. It is brand new so I haven't seen image samples, but the specs look interesting.

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=67600

If you need RAW, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 seems pretty nice.

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=38823
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=49378
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=544717&postcount=1

ziggy53

ziggy53 wrote:

...
Keep your eyes open too for the Fuji F50fd. It is brand new so I haven't seen image samples, but the specs look interesting...

Supposedly, these are samples from the FujiFilm F50fd:

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/review/2007/08/02/6765.html

graemefordham

A wealth of information, especially the info on sensor size...It appears more research is needed on my part! It really doesn't stop with digital photography does it?

Happy dayz though and thanks for all the insight. Back to the drawing board... awaiting the development of this type of compact, it must be just around the corner, surely.

Ta