Pocket camera recommendations

My wife keeps telling me, and probably with some justification, that my
trusty old Oly C2100 is too big and heavy to carry in the backpack when
hiking over the alps. For those of you not familiar with the beast, it's
about the size of an SLR and weighs in at 540g without batteries.

I thought this might be an excuse to upgrade to one of the new, lighter,
super zooms but 'er indoors says this camera is for her and she wants
something that will slip into a shirt pocket.

I just know I'm going to miss my 10x stabilised zoom but it's probably true
that the extra weight and bulk is too much when we need to travel light.

I took a quick look at the pocket sized cameras available but there are so
many of them that I didn't know where to start. Anyone care to make any
recommendations? Requirements are (in order):

Lightweight and shirt-pocket sized.
Some sort of optical zoom, the more the better.
Takes commonly available and reasonably priced upgrade memory (see note
below).
I'm not too fussed about megapixels but I guess extra mp could make up for
lack of zoom if I can digitally zoom (in camera or later).
As much manual control as possible in this format of camera.
Preferably takes NiMh AA sized batteries as I always carry those for my GPS.

It will probably only be used in the great outdoors. When we get back to
the hotel or whatever, I'm hoping I'll have my Oly available.

Note on memory: My Oly takes SmartMedia cards and I have some spare cards.
Are these old-hat/obsolete now or is it possible to get a modern pocket
camera that takes them? It would save a few pennies if I could use the
cards I already have available.

Any advice on what to look out for or avoid greatly appreciated. I am based
in the UK if that makes a difference.

Regards
Keith

The latest "fashion squeel" is Panasonic DMC-FX01. It is small (metal
body) and takes good pictures. The additional features are image
stabilization and 28 mm focal length (film equivalent).

You can get a slightly larger Panasonic DMC-TZ1. The designers packed a
10x zoom into the small body by using "folded optics". Ultrazoom and
image stabilisation work together synergistically.

...



Keith Sheppard wrote:
My wife keeps telling me, and probably with some justification, that my
trusty old Oly C2100 is too big and heavy to carry in the backpack when
hiking over the alps. For those of you not familiar with the beast, it's
about the size of an SLR and weighs in at 540g without batteries.

I thought this might be an excuse to upgrade to one of the new, lighter,
super zooms but 'er indoors says this camera is for her and she wants
something that will slip into a shirt pocket.

I just know I'm going to miss my 10x stabilised zoom but it's probably true
that the extra weight and bulk is too much when we need to travel light.

I took a quick look at the pocket sized cameras available but there are so
many of them that I didn't know where to start. Anyone care to make any
recommendations? Requirements are (in order):

Lightweight and shirt-pocket sized.
Some sort of optical zoom, the more the better.
Takes commonly available and reasonably priced upgrade memory (see note
below).
I'm not too fussed about megapixels but I guess extra mp could make up for
lack of zoom if I can digitally zoom (in camera or later).
As much manual control as possible in this format of camera.
Preferably takes NiMh AA sized batteries as I always carry those for my GPS.

It will probably only be used in the great outdoors. When we get back to
the hotel or whatever, I'm hoping I'll have my Oly available.

Note on memory: My Oly takes SmartMedia cards and I have some spare cards.
Are these old-hat/obsolete now or is it possible to get a modern pocket
camera that takes them? It would save a few pennies if I could use the
cards I already have available.

Any advice on what to look out for or avoid greatly appreciated. I am based
in the UK if that makes a difference.

Regards
Keith

Keith Sheppard wrote:
My wife keeps telling me, and probably with some justification, that
my trusty old Oly C2100 is too big and heavy to carry in the backpack
when hiking over the alps. For those of you not familiar with the
beast, it's about the size of an SLR and weighs in at 540g without
batteries.

I thought this might be an excuse to upgrade to one of the new,
lighter, super zooms but 'er indoors says this camera is for her and
she wants something that will slip into a shirt pocket.

I just know I'm going to miss my 10x stabilised zoom but it's
probably true that the extra weight and bulk is too much when we need
to travel light.

I took a quick look at the pocket sized cameras available but there
are so many of them that I didn't know where to start. Anyone care
to make any recommendations? Requirements are (in order):

Lightweight and shirt-pocket sized.
Some sort of optical zoom, the more the better.
Takes commonly available and reasonably priced upgrade memory (see
note below).
I'm not too fussed about megapixels but I guess extra mp could make
up for lack of zoom if I can digitally zoom (in camera or later).
As much manual control as possible in this format of camera.
Preferably takes NiMh AA sized batteries as I always carry those for
my GPS.

It will probably only be used in the great outdoors. When we get
back to the hotel or whatever, I'm hoping I'll have my Oly available.

Note on memory: My Oly takes SmartMedia cards and I have some spare
cards. Are these old-hat/obsolete now or is it possible to get a
modern pocket camera that takes them? It would save a few pennies if
I could use the cards I already have available.

Any advice on what to look out for or avoid greatly appreciated. I
am based in the UK if that makes a difference.

Regards
Keith

Some of the "pocketable" Panasonics have 6* zoom and are probably the best
compromise if you feel that the pocketable 3* zooms are simply not up to the
job.

Browse and compare here- http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Panasonic/

Dennis.

On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 09:20:55 GMT, Keith Sheppard wrote:
My wife keeps telling me, and probably with some justification, that my
trusty old Oly C2100 is too big and heavy to carry in the backpack when
hiking over the alps. For those of you not familiar with the beast, it's
about the size of an SLR and weighs in at 540g without batteries.

I thought this might be an excuse to upgrade to one of the new, lighter,
super zooms but 'er indoors says this camera is for her and she wants
something that will slip into a shirt pocket.

Kodak has a shirt-pocket-sized superzoom, the V610. The one review I
read of it, though, said that you'd be better off with the somewhat
larger Panasonic TZ1. The latter is a bit less than half the weight of
your Oly (it's listed as 234 grams without battery), though it's
probably too big to fit in most shirt pockets.

Links:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/ko...ew/index.shtml
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/pa...mc_tz1-review/

-dms

In article ,
"Keith Sheppard" wrote:

My wife keeps telling me, and probably with some justification, that my
trusty old Oly C2100 is too big and heavy to carry in the backpack when
hiking over the alps. For those of you not familiar with the beast, it's
about the size of an SLR and weighs in at 540g without batteries.

I thought this might be an excuse to upgrade to one of the new, lighter,
super zooms but 'er indoors says this camera is for her and she wants
something that will slip into a shirt pocket.

I just know I'm going to miss my 10x stabilised zoom but it's probably true
that the extra weight and bulk is too much when we need to travel light.

I took a quick look at the pocket sized cameras available but there are so
many of them that I didn't know where to start. Anyone care to make any
recommendations? Requirements are (in order):

Lightweight and shirt-pocket sized.
Some sort of optical zoom, the more the better.
Takes commonly available and reasonably priced upgrade memory (see note
below).
I'm not too fussed about megapixels but I guess extra mp could make up for
lack of zoom if I can digitally zoom (in camera or later).
As much manual control as possible in this format of camera.
Preferably takes NiMh AA sized batteries as I always carry those for my GPS.

It will probably only be used in the great outdoors. When we get back to
the hotel or whatever, I'm hoping I'll have my Oly available.

Note on memory: My Oly takes SmartMedia cards and I have some spare cards.
Are these old-hat/obsolete now or is it possible to get a modern pocket
camera that takes them? It would save a few pennies if I could use the
cards I already have available.

Any advice on what to look out for or avoid greatly appreciated. I am based
in the UK if that makes a difference.

Sony has several digital cameras that fit your criteria. So does Nikon,
Kodak, Fujifilm, Pentax, and Olympus. I recently bought a Sony DSC-W100,
8 megapixal camera with 3x optical zoom and an f2.8 lens and I am
thrilled with it. Check out http://www.dpreview.com or your favorite
camera store to see what else is available.

As one poster suggested there are loads of choices. I just got a Sony
T30 and its awesome. I had been using a Nikon CP990 which is a
clunker but built like a tank, and a Canon digital Elf 250. The Sony
will probably wind up in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Design... its
that sweet. But you have to use proprietary memory, and I bought a
2Gig Sandisk Ultra II Duo Pro for around $60 and I'm good to go with
110 7meg pix or 1100 640/480 pix. Better $$$ than Sony memory and
probably faster.

My biggest problem with this camera is that everyone wants to "see" it
and play with it.


On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 09:20:55 GMT, "Keith Sheppard"
wrote:

My wife keeps telling me, and probably with some justification, that my
trusty old Oly C2100 is too big and heavy to carry in the backpack when
hiking over the alps. For those of you not familiar with the beast, it's
about the size of an SLR and weighs in at 540g without batteries.

I thought this might be an excuse to upgrade to one of the new, lighter,
super zooms but 'er indoors says this camera is for her and she wants
something that will slip into a shirt pocket.

I just know I'm going to miss my 10x stabilised zoom but it's probably true
that the extra weight and bulk is too much when we need to travel light.

I took a quick look at the pocket sized cameras available but there are so
many of them that I didn't know where to start. Anyone care to make any
recommendations? Requirements are (in order):

Lightweight and shirt-pocket sized.
Some sort of optical zoom, the more the better.
Takes commonly available and reasonably priced upgrade memory (see note
below).
I'm not too fussed about megapixels but I guess extra mp could make up for
lack of zoom if I can digitally zoom (in camera or later).
As much manual control as possible in this format of camera.
Preferably takes NiMh AA sized batteries as I always carry those for my GPS.

It will probably only be used in the great outdoors. When we get back to
the hotel or whatever, I'm hoping I'll have my Oly available.

Note on memory: My Oly takes SmartMedia cards and I have some spare cards.
Are these old-hat/obsolete now or is it possible to get a modern pocket
camera that takes them? It would save a few pennies if I could use the
cards I already have available.

Any advice on what to look out for or avoid greatly appreciated. I am based
in the UK if that makes a difference.

Regards
Keith

Keith Sheppard wrote:
My wife keeps telling me, and probably with some justification, that my
trusty old Oly C2100 is too big and heavy to carry in the backpack when
hiking over the alps. For those of you not familiar with the beast, it's
about the size of an SLR and weighs in at 540g without batteries.

I thought this might be an excuse to upgrade to one of the new, lighter,
super zooms but 'er indoors says this camera is for her and she wants
something that will slip into a shirt pocket.

I just know I'm going to miss my 10x stabilised zoom but it's probably true
that the extra weight and bulk is too much when we need to travel light.

I took a quick look at the pocket sized cameras available but there are so
many of them that I didn't know where to start. Anyone care to make any
recommendations? Requirements are (in order):

Lightweight and shirt-pocket sized.
Some sort of optical zoom, the more the better.
Takes commonly available and reasonably priced upgrade memory (see note
below).
I'm not too fussed about megapixels but I guess extra mp could make up for
lack of zoom if I can digitally zoom (in camera or later).
As much manual control as possible in this format of camera.
Preferably takes NiMh AA sized batteries as I always carry those for my GPS.

It will probably only be used in the great outdoors. When we get back to
the hotel or whatever, I'm hoping I'll have my Oly available.

Note on memory: My Oly takes SmartMedia cards and I have some spare cards.
Are these old-hat/obsolete now or is it possible to get a modern pocket
camera that takes them? It would save a few pennies if I could use the
cards I already have available.

Any advice on what to look out for or avoid greatly appreciated. I am based
in the UK if that makes a difference.

Regards
Keith





I am afraid your SM cards are dead. No current camera uses them as the
largest capacity was only 128 meg, and that is trivial by today's
standards. Most popular are SD and CF formats (also cheapest).
As for a camera, check out the DCresource and other review sites for
more information. I believe Kodak sells a shirt-pocket sized superzoom,
but I can't comment on how good it is.

On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 03:04:59 -0500, Ron Hunter wrote:

I am afraid your SM cards are dead. No current camera uses them as the
largest capacity was only 128 meg, and that is trivial by today's
standards. Most popular are SD and CF formats (also cheapest).

SD's are popular, but I'm not quite so sure about CF. You don't
see many of the "I'll never buy a camera that doesn't use CF cards"
that were so common only a year ago. While CF still has some
advantages for DSLRs, P&S cameras represent the greatest number of
sales, so I suspect that the market share of CF cards has been
steadily dwindling for some time. There are other devices that use
large numbers of flash cards, and I don't think that very many
phones, PDAs or mp3 players use CF cards. If CF cards are
especially popular with any segment of the photographic community,
it might be with geezers holding onto their old digicams well beyond
their "discard me" dates.



As for a camera, check out the DCresource and other review sites for
more information. I believe Kodak sells a shirt-pocket sized superzoom,
but I can't comment on how good it is.

I wonder if that Kodak uses CF cards? g

Thanks for the suggestions. I shall check them both out.

I have read that the Panasonics suffer from excessive noise at high ISO
settings (although this may not be a problem if the camera is mainly for
outdoor use). Anyone got any observations on Panasonics and noise?

Keith

I am afraid your SM cards are dead. No current camera uses them as the
largest capacity was only 128 meg, and that is trivial by today's
standards.
I was afraid of that. Never mind. They're not entirely dead until my C2100
pops its cloggs but at least that's one criterion I can stop worrying about
in my search for a pocket camera.

Keith