What compact camera do you use?

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mynameisian

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Hi all,

I shoot almost every day in the studio using my trusty 5D. It's a brilliant camera as a workhorse, but when I'm out and about I use a range of different cameras, including my iPhone and lots of film cameras. So I wondered what cameras you guys use as an everyday too and what you like about it.

At the moment I'm using a Canon Ixus 220, a Canon AV1 film and a La Sardina Lomo film camera.

So what are you using?
 
A Ricoh GRD II.
- Best control layout and options of any compact I have used
- Nice B+W jpegs
- Fastish wide fixed lens 28, f2.4
- Small and easily fits in pocket
- Zone focusing at touch of a button which is great for street shooting (and pretty much anything else as small sensor comibined with 28 lens means most things are in focus by default!)
- Build quality, magnesium body, nice rubber grip material
- price, cost me £80

Can you tell I am a bit of a fan...
 
A selection! In age order, a Canon D10 for a beach/snorkelling camera, a Minox M3 miniature, a Fuji XF-1 and another Fuji, an X-10. The Canon only really comes out to play when it's hissing down (and I usually avoid being outside then!) or on holidays in Crete where it's warm enough for me to get wet. The Minox is more a curiosity, although it gives great images, albeit at just 5MP. The 2 baby Fujis are closely related but the XF-1 shares its model nomenclature with my car (purely coincidence - I actually went into the shop intending to leave with either an X-10 or a Nikon 1 series!) and is very pocketable so can be taken anywhere while the X-10 is slightly bulkier (still fits in a coat pocket but the XF-1 fits a shirt pocket). Both take photographs rather than just snaps and have a fairly high level of control available, albeit slightly limited in f numbers and length of exposures.

I also use a bridge camera a fair bit - yet another Fuji (I promise I'm not a fanboy, it's just that the cameras that do what I want them to share the badge!), an HS-30 superzoom which covers 24-720mm (35mm film equivalent focal length) and delivers great files SOOC which print well up to A3+ (as do the baby Fujis - the D10 is happier up to A4).

My current phone is a Blackberry which is great for snaps although I haven't done any larger prints from it than enprint size.
 
Some of my cameras are 5x4 so that makes all the rest of them compact.

My favourites are Nikon F, Rolleicord V and Kodak Retina Reflex III.

I have one of those new fangled electric cameras too. A nikon P6000.


Steve.
 
I don't have one at the moment. A grave oversight I need to remedy.
 
A rather battle scarred Canon S90 and a Fuji X100 (if that counts as a compact). Both great though if I'm being honest the Fuji is more of a luxury than a convenience.
 
I chose the Canon S95 because of the size and the RAW capability. So far I'm very happy with my choice. :)

If I had the money now, I would get a Sony R100 which is of a similar size, and is almost a Canon S95/100 clone, but ups the quality quite a bit by all reports.
 
Canon Ixus 115.

It's cheap, fits in a pocket without giving me a dodgy bulge, and has decent image quality. It also has lots of things to fiddle with when I need entertaining, and an emergency Auto switch on top in case I change the settings to something stupid and need to get back into normal photo mode in a hurry.

Other cameras getting regular use include the Nikon D40 (because sometimes I still need DSLR quality, ultrawide lens or bouncy flash, but want minimal bulk), an Olympus XA2 (because they're just sexy little beasts), a Minolta AF 7000 (direct controls a-plenty, and the circuitry imprinted into the mirror looks like something out of Tron), and a Fujica ST605 (because sometimes a leather wrapped body with silver metal top plate and a manual focus lens just makes you feel awesome. It helps that it's super reliable and has a decent meter too).
 
A Canon Powershot SX120 IS - it replaced an aged S60 that had a failed sensor and it was very much a compromise buy with the emphasis on cost. I wanted three things that the G series would have delivered: optical viewfinder, RAW files and a range of settings including Av, Tv and M - for my £140, I didn't get the G series but I did get the settings.

The SX120 is great for some things but awful for others - particularly low light performance and moving subjects. I also find using the rear screen for shooting very awkward particularly in strong light and the shutter lag is excruciating, especially when being used to shooting with a DSLR. But it gets taken when and where I wouldn't dream of taking my DSLR kit and it gets used :cool:
 
ernesto said:
A Ricoh GRD II.
- Best control layout and options of any compact I have used
- Nice B+W jpegs
- Fastish wide fixed lens 28, f2.4
- Small and easily fits in pocket
- Zone focusing at touch of a button which is great for street shooting (and pretty much anything else as small sensor comibined with 28 lens means most things are in focus by default!)
- Build quality, magnesium body, nice rubber grip material
- price, cost me £80

Can you tell I am a bit of a fan...
Click to expand...

GRDIII here, f/1.9 lens instead of a 2.4, I've added the OVF to it too. Great PnS.
 
After shed loads of reading and checking full size images on Flickr I opted for the Lumix LX7 - a great little camera for the money which I frankly underutilise!

Main pros

  • pretty good price
  • RAW files
  • image quality (even pixel peeping - this is what stopped me getting the SX20 by the way)
  • f1.4
  • fast AF
  • excellent video
  • size - its not as compact as some but fits in a jacket pocket no problem.
  • Easy menu system
  • Has a grip so comfy to use

Cons

  • Can get a bit noisy at higher ISOs although I tend to compare it with the 5D3 images so its not really fair!
  • I don't like the quality of the flash.
 
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Nikon Coolpix 4300 and 4500, for digiscoping and occassional macros.
 
Rx100

I have an iphone 5, but don't count that as a camera.
 
FruitFlakes said:
GRDIII here, f/1.9 lens instead of a 2.4, I've added the OVF to it too. Great PnS.
Click to expand...

I've got the GRDIV, which I believe has minimal differences compared to yours, but I really do need to getting an OVF for it. Which one do you have?
 
i use either my Lumix LX3 or my Leica Digilux2 depending on how light i want to travel or how inconspicuous i want to be :thinking:

sometimes a bag with 2 pro bodies & a few 2.8 zooms just seems way too heavy :shrug:
 
Ricoh GRD 1 for digital.

For film I have:
Yashica T5
Minox 35 GL
Olympus MJU 2
 
Surprised by number of Ricoh GRD users. Maybe it is not the best kept secret after all...
 
S90 for me. Great performance and size means it gets carried around a lot:D
 
My partner got me a Samsung DV300F wifi compact for Xmas.

Having loads of fun with it. Small enough to fit in my shirt pocket. 32Gb MicroSD card and charging from same charging lead I use for my phone.

16.1 megapixels and fairly wide range of programmes for many situations. I have grown to really like this compact in the 6 weeks I have had it. Its flash is a bit weak.

Most times I have an original Olympus mju film camera with me too.

As mentioned in an earlier thread I have a safe bolted in the boot of my car which has my camera kit I use for work locked in so usually am fully covered.

H
 
I have a Lumix GF1, with the little 20mm f/1.7 prime lens - cracking camera, bought for when I was on the motorbike, but gets used a surprising amount. Decent size sensor, and good prime lens, it produces some really nice results.
 
Another X100 here... although the classifieds are full of people selling theirs...not sure why cos it's a lovely little thing
 
X100 is my 'big' camera! :)

X10 is my compact.
 
Steve said:
Another X100 here... although the classifieds are full of people selling theirs...not sure why cos it's a lovely little thing
Click to expand...

It is a lovely camera.
Various reasons for selling but the reason I sold mine - too big and heavy with poor AF. All things I knew about before I bought it but was lured by IQ and the actual looks of the camera itself.
I now use a much smaller and lighter compact that I take everywhere (with a hit in IQ) and just use a DSLR when attempting to take 'proper' photographs which outperforms the X100 in many areas anyway.
 
Nikon P7700. Excellent compact for video and stills.


Kev.
 
I use a canon sx220hs. Yeah it's not the most capable camera but I only really use it when I think it's going to be passed around and potentially knocked about a bit or dropped and the images it produces are ok(ish).
 
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