Compact cameras for indoors

specialman

specialman

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Pat MacInnes
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The sales staff at my place go out on customer visits and in a bid to get a bit of stock imagery to accompany future news stories, they're being provided with compacts to use.

I know jack about compacts so thought I'd get a general consensus:

Up to £200
Wide angle lens for interior shots
Decent high(er) ISO performance

Other than that, these will be used by people who aren't photographers so ease-of-use is a essential, even if it's a P mode.

Suggestions please :)
 
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My girlfriend has just got a Canon Ixus 125. Cost about £119 from Amazon. Its very small but it takes really nice indoor pics. She is a project manager so needed something that will take good indoor shots and have a wide lens. We found 24mm to be ideal so i guess thats a good starting point.
Its mostly full auto, has about 50+ scene pre sets etc. As a Canon 5DMKIII owner even i was impressed with it.
 
No room to shift on budget.... there's prospectively 10+ cameras to be bought.

Anyone got experience of the Fujis, particulalry the EXR range?
 
http://shop.fujifilm.co.uk/refurbished-digital-cameras/compact?p=1

It might be worth contacting them and enquiring about bulk discounts. The X-10 and XF-1 both have reasonably fast, fairly wide lenses (at the wide end) and acceptable high ISO performance (800 is very useable and 1600 gives useable (though noisy) results - slap on some NR in PP?) Both have P mode and can also shoot raw files (although the JPEGs they throw out are generally more useable). The HS30 has a longer zoom (up to 720mm [35mm EFL]) and is also a 1/2 decent high ISO/low light performer.
 
You don't want much do you!? :) If you want good low light you need one with a fast lens, but the problem is you want wide too, something has to give on your budget. The samsung ex1 has 24mm equiv wide lens and f1.8 lens, not sure if you will find anymore, its been replaced by the ex2.

If 28mm is wide enough hdew are doing the Olympus xz-1 with a f1.8-2.5 iZUIKO lens for £205. I'm sure you can get a discount if you are buying 10.
 
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I think we need to remember that these cameras are not going to be used as DSLR substitutes etc, but are for taking snaps by people who aren't Camera savvy, and probably wont want to get in to using manual modes, messing around with ISO's etc.
I'd also say that 28mm is not wide on a compact, at least not compared to a lot of the 24-25mm lenses and those few mm's can make a big difference when shooting interiors.

At least, thats how i see it.
 
dave_bass5 said:
I think we need to remember that these cameras are not going to be used as DSLR substitutes etc, but are for taking snaps by people who aren't Camera savvy, and probably wont want to get in to using manual modes, messing around with ISO's etc.
I'd also say that 28mm is not wide on a compact, at least not compared to a lot of the 24-25mm lenses and those few mm's can make a big difference when shooting interiors.

At least, thats how i see it.
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28mm full frame equiv not actually 28mm.
 
dave_bass5 said:
Yeah but 28mm is quite a big jump from 24mm on any camera. Comparing shots of the same room from my S95 (28mm) and my GF's Ixus 125 (24mm) shows a huge difference, especially if the room is quite small.
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Yes i agree i don't think he will get both a 24mm and a f1.4 or f1.8 lens on his budget like i mentioned something will have to give. If low light performance is more important the xz1 might be a option.
 
I was looking at the Canon SX230 in Curry's at the weekend - reviews say they are decent up to ISO800. The lens is 28mm rather than the 24mm that everyone else seems to use though. £119 though, which seemed a good price. The newer SX260 is about £200 and has a 25mm lens, and is also rated as being useable at ISO800 (usable being a releative concept of course, comapred to SLR's).
 
rjbell said:
Yes i agree i don't think he will get both a 24mm and a f1.4 or f1.8 lens on his budget like i mentioned something will have to give. If low light performance is more important the xz1 might be a option.
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But he doesn't mention a fast lens, it others that have mentioned this.
This is why i posted because i think its getting blown out of proportion, based on the first post and what he is looking for.
He wants decent low light ISO performance, dont we all, and within the price bracket there are plenty that can do well, just not up to the high end compacts which as we know, are out of the price range.
 
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dave_bass5 said:
But he doesn't mention a fast lens, it others that have mentioned this.
This is why i posted because i think its getting blown out of proportion, based on the first post and what he is looking for.
He wants decent low light ISO performance, dont we all, and within the price bracket there are plenty that can do well, just not up to the high end compacts which as we know, are out of the price range.
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He's asked for a good low light performance, and you can not get a decent low light performance from a small sensor compact without a fast lens that's why everyone has mentioned it.
 
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I dont agree and id like to know where you get that info from.
A fast lens will not make for a cleaner image at higher ISO settings, not matter how fast it is.
The OP asked for decent high ISO as well as other features, and as he stated its for news stories id assume he isnt going to be making large prints from them so almost any compact around the £150-£200 should do.
 
dave_bass5 said:
I dont agree and id like to know where you get that info from.
A fast lens will not make for a cleaner image at higher ISO settings, not matter how fast it is.
The OP asked for decent high ISO as well as other features, and as he stated its for news stories id assume he isnt going to be making large prints from them so almost any compact around the £150-£200 should do.
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I never said a faster lens would make cleaner high iso images. What i said is a better low light performer. Faster the lens lower the iso and lower the noise in low light. All compacts sharing the same small size sensors are all going to be comparable high iso performers and none a very good, a faster lens is a much better option for reducing noise of low light shooting, thats why everyone is suggesting it.
 
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rjbell said:
I never said a faster lens would make cleaner high iso images. What i said is a better low light performer. Faster the lens lower the iso and lower the noise in low light.
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The OP asked for decent higher ISO shots, my Canon S95 is known to be a good low light performer yet it doesn't have a fast lens, at least not at the longer end.
I realise the two combined makes for a much better low light camera but just having a fast lens will not give better high ISO images. I agree, it will help to keep in the lower ISO range but as we both agree thats not really going to happen in the sub £200 range so the only real option is to find a camera with a good, or good enough ISO performance.
Its easy to get obsessed with only one aspect of a camera's performance and for some reason low light seems to be the big one when it comes to compacts. I dont know why as none of them can are that good, just some are better than others and the best of the lot are still compromises IMO.

Someone suggested the SX230, having used that and having made prints from it 'id say that the ISO noise is pretty good, although id still go for something wider.

I'll leave it at that, we aren't getting anywhere and the thread is going off topic, Im sure the OP will find something suitable.
 
dave_bass5 said:
Its easy to get obsessed with only one aspect of a camera's performance and for some reason low light seems to be the big one when it comes to compacts. I dont know why as none of them can are that good, just some are better than others and the best of the lot are still compromises IMO.
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You've have just said it yourself none are that good, so keeping iso as low as possible is a important. This is precisely why everyone is recommending fast lens compacts!!?!!

I'm not sure what we are arguing here?

The xz1 is over a stop faster then the ixus. If you were shooting at iso400 the xz1 would be shooting the same shutter speed at iso 200, but of course its not as wide which is why i said something has to give its not as wide but has a faster lens so better low light interiors, which is the intended use. You have given them a wide angle option and i a low light option.
 
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Pat, could you tell us how high you would like the ISO performance to be decent at and how wide you'd like to be able to go (in 35mm terms).
 
Some info to chew over here... didn't think this would cause much iof a debate - how wrong :lol:

Nod said:
Pat, could you tell us how high you would like the ISO performance to be decent at and how wide you'd like to be able to go (in 35mm terms).
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TBH, I don't know on the ISO front, maybe 1600. Something high enough that flash isn't always neccessary.
 
Pretty sure I've got some high ISO samples from an HS30 somewhere. Shot using a single standard lamp as the only lighting.
 
I would contact Fuji refurbished
http://shop.fujifilm.co.uk/refurbished-digital-cameras

They are doing the X10 at £249.95
as they are being replased by the X20 next month they well might do you an offer on ten.

I bought mine refurbished and it was perfect.

It is a lot of camera for the money....
 
OK, found and resized. IIRC, SOOC apart from the resize. HS30, 1600ISO, longest FL available (720mm 35mm eq), f/5.6 (wide open), 1/2s (again, IIRC, handheld or resting on armchair). As you can see, I wasn't being kind! The drawer measures 3 1/4" tall and the ply is 8mm thick. The widest the lens goes is 24mm in 35mm equivalence.

DSCF0061for_tp.jpg
 
Srsmicrosystems are selling olympus e.pm1 for £189? Its likely to out perform any compact and still reasonably compact. Still 28mm equiv but can shoot panoramic mode.
 
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