Best small camera

P

pcatterall

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 Aug 2004
Messages
5,509
Location
Home East Lancashire boat Spain
Visit site
Well one with a dam view finder for a start!!!
I am about to through my pocket camera away!! We want a decent camera but with a hole in it for when we cant see the image on the screen ( which seems to be any time except on a dull day!!)
We quite like the idea of built in GPS so we can remember where we took the photos!!
I do have a large SLR type camera but it is bulky so not always available.
I have seen ads for the cannon power shot SX280 but I don't think this has a mk 1 eyeball viewfinder to supplement the screen.
Any recommendations?
 
Couldnt agree more. useless in sunlight. Even more useless if you have to wear fixed focus glasses. Not all of us can wear vari or bi-focals and if you are one then you MUST have a viewfinder. You simply cant see a 2 inch screen. Nobody makes a cheap video camera nowadays with a viewfinder, so i had to give that hobby up altogether.

Even with my varifocals nowadays, its still quite difficult peering through the bottom of my glasses at those useless little screens while taking a shot! Thats why I have to lug a bulky DSLR or a good Bridge Camera round with me if I want pics.
 
+1

There's got to be something on the market somewhere like this. The nearest I've seen is one of the "bridge" cameras which had an electronic viewfinder, but I don't want something that bulky. And I had an early version of one of these and the viewfinder was carp, too pixelated.

Currently get by with my phone, which has a particularly bright screen if need be, but this uses up the battery too quickly.
 
I'm using a Pentax WG-1, but it does not have a viewfinder (I know what you mean!) but the screen is fine on a sunny Australian day. I chose it because its waterproof to 10m and shockproof (you can drop it from 5 foot). its 14MP I only use to about 2m underwater (and its been fine) but have tried not to drop it. It does really good close ups. Its great for deck work (and underwater) and fits in a pocket - but I also have an SLR - which is a bit more tender and far too big to fit in a pocket. I do not do Vids, its all single image stuff. I've had it about 10 months now and suspect its been superseded twice by now! I like it.

Jonathan
 
I was always convinced that an optical viewfinder was essential, but when I broke my Canon compact (which had one) I bought a Fuji Finepix F660EXR. It has no viewfinder, but does have a fair sized screen, which is pretty good. It cost about £95 from an Amazon seller and the picture quality is excellent. It has some neat tricks including a panoramic mode in which it takes multiple shots and stitches them together, and a low light trick of taking three photos and merging them. I have so far taken about 500 shots with it, and there were only a couple of occasions in the bright Turkish sun when I could not frame the picture on the screen, and shot by guesswork. On such occasions just use the zoom lens at a wide angle and crop the picture afterwards. With 16 megapixels there is enough detail to do so.
 
Small cameras with a screen do seem to be a thing of the past but depending on your budget the new generation of digital rangefinders might meet your criteria.

They are based on the smaller 35mm cameras and many brands are digitizing their originals. A rangefinder would generally have a viewfinder which fitted onto the top or side of the body. It has no mirror inside the camera and so they would just be used with an understanding of difference (paralax error) between lens and viewfinder. But today they use a digital viewfinder. A quick search brings up this guy...

http://www.jessops.com/online.store...in-black-with-10-30mm-vr-lens-88926/show.html

It looks like they are called compact systems but they offer interchangeable lenses and accessories which for the other models seem to include a 'clip' on viewfinder.

Hope this helps,
 
I have an OLYMPUS STYLUS 410. Pocket size with a proper viewfinder, Has sound and video and a great little camera - even if the screen is a bit small. Don't think they make them anymore - I got mine on ebay and was virtually new.
 
I recently purchased a fujifilm x100s which has a screen and a viewfinder which can switch between optical and electronic. It is not cheep but is very good at what it does. I am very pleased. That said I dont use the screen but rarely use the viewfinder in optical mode as the electronic is so good and does not have the parallax error which is significant in any close shots. For a boat I would recommend a Panasonic Lumix which is water and shock proof. No viewfinder but for on a boat surely you just point roughly the right direction and click. If you are doing 'real' photography surely you will use the DSLR.
 
Canon SX50

I sold my Canon EOS and various lenses, I am getting older and the gear was getting heavier. I sold it all for more than I had to pay for a Canon Powershot SX50 HD which has all the following.

A viewfinder
A good large screen that can be pivoted.
Brilliant image stabilization.
A very great range to its optical zoom without using the digital zoom.
“Auto” and “Programmed” modes if you want it easy and all the adjustments you could wish for if you want something more sophisticated.

All this and much, much more, I am very pleased with it. Available from various websites but the cheapest I could find when I bought mine was here.

http://www.procamerashop.co.uk/came...t/canon-powershot-sx50-hs-digital-camera.html

George
 
I sold off my bridge camera and bought the Fuji 770exr Next model up but very similar. Outstanding results with photos taken from boat and with image stabilization on zoom - fantastic. very bright screen even in sunlight so dont miss viewfinder and can keep my glasses on.

Norman_E said:
I was always convinced that an optical viewfinder was essential, but when I broke my Canon compact (which had one) I bought a Fuji Finepix F660EXR. It has no viewfinder, but does have a fair sized screen, which is pretty good. It cost about £95 from an Amazon seller and the picture quality is excellent. It has some neat tricks including a panoramic mode in which it takes multiple shots and stitches them together, and a low light trick of taking three photos and merging them. I have so far taken about 500 shots with it, and there were only a couple of occasions in the bright Turkish sun when I could not frame the picture on the screen, and shot by guesswork. On such occasions just use the zoom lens at a wide angle and crop the picture afterwards. With 16 megapixels there is enough detail to do so.
Click to expand...
 
Salty John said:
You rotate it on your head to keep the bill pointing downwind.
Click to expand...

That's no good - you can't take upwind pix.

I think the answer lies in the past, before cameras had viewfinders...

family.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top