Best Compact for £250

mata.morrison

mata.morrison

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Hi all,

Looking for a compact for the wife, needs to be new, small and of good IQ.

Thinking a Panasonic TZ30, had a TZ6 a few years back and it seemed good. I just don't know about compacts and what's out there at the moment, this will be used on auto as a point and shoot :)
 
I am after a compact myself, so I will keep an eye on this thread. Got my eye on the Canon Powershot S100. But at nearly £300 it's a little more than I want to pay.
 
As I said it's for the wife for everyday stuff, she doesn't want to be carrying a gripped 500D + lenses etc around as its to fit in handbag/changebag for the baby.

Could stretch to £300ish if I throw in some £££, so list so far is, Fuji X10, Canon s100, Panasonic TZ30, any others I should look at? I'm guessing most of these models will have similar IQ? Low light capability would be a big + for indoors etc.
 
mata.morrison said:
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Could stretch to £300ish if I throw in some £££, so list so far is, Fuji X10, Canon s100, Panasonic TZ30, any others I should look at? I'm guessing most of these models will have similar IQ? Low light capability would be a big + for indoors etc.
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Some good choices, I was looking at these also, I have tried a friends Fuji X10 but I find it a little bulky, and not really a true compact. My choice would be the Canon s100.
 
Take a look at the panasonic lumix dmc- LX7.

Bought this after owning the almighty x10, the lx7 beats it in terms of IQ and is nice and small :)

To get it at your budget you'd need to go down the digital rev route as I did.
 
The S100 is very good and very small - well inside that price online from various places.
 
Panasonic all the way. The Leica lens does it for me. Results are absolutely pin sharp. Mine is a TZ-8, 12mp and a 12X optical zoom, and a good range of manual controls. I wouldn't/couldn't be without it.
 
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I agree with Phil - I looked long and hard and eventually got the LX-7
 
THIS is a good website for comparing camera sizes.

I'd go for the Canon S100 myself.
 
The problem I have with slow lens compacts is that whilst they may well be amazing in bright sunshine, as soon as lighting drops then IQ does considerably.

With such a small sensor, up to ISO 800 will always be great but after that it all starts to go downhill quite quickly.

With the S100's f5.6 long end aperture, ISO will inevitably be higher than it needs to be with other compacts on the market.

When the S100 owner is shooting at ISO1600 I'm still happy as Larry at ISO250 and to a small sensor compact, that's quite a huge difference in IQ.
 
Phil Young said:
The problem I have with slow lens compacts is that whilst they may well be amazing in bright sunshine, as soon as lighting drops then IQ does considerably.

With such a small sensor, up to ISO 800 will always be great but after that it all starts to go downhill quite quickly.

With the S100's f5.6 long end aperture, ISO will inevitably be higher than it needs to be with other compacts on the market.

When the S100 owner is shooting at ISO1600 I'm still happy as Larry at ISO250 and to a small sensor compact, that's quite a huge difference in IQ.
Click to expand...

Thats the tradeoff that people need to decide when getting the s100, is the smaller size worth the slower lens at longer focal lengths. It is very small though!
 
I recently bought my wife a Sony dsc-hx20v was dead set on a canon s100 but thought the Sony was a more wife friendly camera as she isn't big into photography! Most shops were asking £250 and upwards but I got it for £230 from amazon with £40 cashback!
It's an excellent compact!!
 
I also need to decide on what compact for the Daughters Christmas present. Its between the Lx7 and the S100 at the moment.
 
I have just these last couple of days bought a Nikon P7700. So far it seems a great little camera. I'm keeping it in my coat pocket for now and taking it to work with me. Just in case I get the chance to get some nice frosty shots! £315 from Digital Rev.

Kev.
 
Bought the S100 a few months ago. Perfectly fine for a compact, shoots raw, manual control etc I only bought it because canon do an underwater housing for it so it's a great entry level camera for scuba diving!
 
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