wrote:
I am looking for a camera, with specific (but not particularly
unusual) properties. Unfortunately, I can't cut the range down to a
number that is feasible to investigate individually, as my main sine
qua non doesn't seem to be a standard search term!

I.e. I need a viewfinder. No ifs, buts or maybes - I NEED one.
I have tried to use my wife's one without, and it's hopeless - I can't
see the viewfinder with glasses on and I can't see anything else
without. A fairly common problem for people of my age with short
sight.

Unfortunately, there don't seem to be many small, light, (fairly)
cheap ones with viewfinders, and I haven't found any with my other
requirements (mainly as much optical zoom as possible). So I am
trying to find the best of an unsatisfactory lot.

Can anyone suggest how I can find out all or almost all cameras
under 250 grammes and a viewfinder? I can do the former, easily
enough, but not the latter.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick,

If you want a viewfinder and a wide zoom range that means DSLR. For low
cost and weight, Nikon D40:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40/

which is 522 grams, and for maximum zoom the Nikon 18-200mm lens:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0511/05...on18-200vr.asp

which weighs 560 grams but isn't cheap. There are some ZLR cameras (also
called "bridge" or "super-zoom") which have an electronic viewfinder where
you put your eye to the finder just like in an SLR or optical finder
camera. The quality of some of these viewfinders is adequate only for
basic composition, but the better ones may suit your needs. I have a
Panasonic FZ5, of which the most recent version if the FZ28:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0807/08...asonicfz28.asp

which weighs just 417 grams, and has a 27-486mm optical zoom (which is a
good coverage at both the wide-angle and telephoto ends), and has an
Electronic ViewFinder (EVF) (although the article I quote doesn't say how
many pixels are in the EVF, i.e. what quality image it might provide).

Other manufacturers also make "super-zoom" cameras - perhaps Canon and
Olympus might be worth trying in the shop to see how they handle.

You might also consider adapting a hand-held slide viewer as a sort of
"LCD" viewer for the back of an LCD-only camera.

Do Campkins and K.P. Cameras (IIRC) still exist in Cambridge?

Cheers,
David