Jersey-pocket camera

mediconabike

Does anyone have any recommendations for a small, light, compact (and reasonably cheap) camera that I could carry in my jersey pocket when I go cycling in the Alps this summer?

(The "camera" on my phone is rubbish!)

plowmar

You will be able to carry any compact camera and nearly all have good picture definition. Personally I would suggest something which has a panoramic feature given where you are going.

In a rather low grade tootling holiday in Suffolk with my cycling virgin wife my Panasonic Lumix came up with some cracking photos. It is though fairly heavy for a compact and my back pockets did sag.

'Egg sucking time' have you tried googling your request?. Any camera with 8+mp, should suit your purpose and there are at least tens of them under £100, so you may be down to personal preference. Research is everything.

Good luck and enjoy, jealousy abounds although I cannot do mountains to save my life.

flet©h

plowmar wrote:

Any camera with 8+mp, should suit your purpose and there are at least tens of them under £100, so you may be down to personal preference. Research is everything.

Ignore mega pixels. Once you get about 6 or so its all just marketing hype and extra mega pixels may actually damage image quality.

Best advice I ever got when buying cameras is to go into a shop, hold them and play with the menus, it will then be obvious what to get.

I use a DSLR most of the time but am considering getting a back pocket camera for cycling, skiing etc. The key feature I'm looking for will be shock and waterproofing. You don't want to get caught in a rain shower or pour water over your head in the heat and worry about your camera getting wet. Or fall off and lose your camera as well as some skin.

plowmar

So the professionals are being duped when they get 20mp + cameras?

The more usable mp's there are the better the picture quality especially if you want to print larger size pictures.

But as I and you said do your research and test physically the cameras you like.

iPete

plowmar wrote:

So the professionals are being duped when they get 20mp + cameras?

The more usable mp's there are the better the picture quality especially if you want to print larger size pictures.

But as I and you said do your research and test physically the cameras you like.

No, consumers are with 20+mp point and shoots and camera phones!

I'd personally look at the Canon Ixus range, just toured with an old Ixus 75 and it did a sterling job. If I was buying now, I'd go for the Ixus 120 IS...

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/pro ... /show.html

If shock proof/waterproof is the name of the game, check out the Olympus mju range..

flet©h

plowmar wrote:

So the professionals are being duped when they get 20mp + cameras?

No - not at all.

The key is the quality of the pixels. A pro camera with 20+mp will have a very large sensor so although it has a lot of pixels they are big and therefore high quality (and very expensive). In a compact, small enough to fit in yoru pocket and cheap enough not to worry about breaking it when you fall off, the sensor will be small. If you try to cram a lot of pixels onto that sensor they will be low quality.

Try comparing you camera phone to your compact. It is likely they have a similar number of pixels but the phone will have a smaller sensor. You will notice the image from the camera is much more grainy.

What do you need the pixels for anyway? You can print 6mp up to A3 and beyond.

GyatsoLa

There is little to tell between compact camera's at the budget end of the market, most of them use the same basic components anyway. But for travellers, the Panasonic Lumix range always gets good reviews.

There is a slightly out of date comparison at the excellent dpreview site here:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q408budgetgroup/

Bear in mind that it can get damp and sweaty in a back pocket, thats not always very good for a camera. Olympus do a decent range of waterproof, shockproof cameras, eg

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/O ... gh8010.asp

trtimothy

would have to recommend the canon ixus 120. Takes nice photos, really small and light and seems fairly robust (although I carry it in a small food bag in case it rains and have yet to drop it down the edge of a quarry....)

Red Rider

If shock proof/waterproof is the name of the game, check out the Olympus mju range..

+1 - I took one travelling and got some great pictures. 8MPs and I've had some blown up to A4 and they look great with no degradation in quality. You might not need the waterproofing in the Alps but if you're thinking of falling off it'll be safe!

If you're the active sort I think they're definitely worth a look. I've swam with mine in muddy rivers, kayaked in the sea, and used it on beaches. Not a single problem. The two down side are the lack of zoom - only 3x Optical - and the quality of indoor pictures isn't as good as some other compacts. But then it's aimed at outdoor users I guess. (I've got the 850SW which google says can be had for close to a ton these days - there may be better deals or newer versions now.)

I know this might not be what you're after, but as there are so many different cameras that are gonna do the job for you then I thought I'd give a couple of thoughts on the one I do actually have

priory

fujifilm z33wp waterproof camera
i have one of these


it was 160gbp when i first sawit
the lens is behind a glass screen but nor protected in your pocket, so keep it in aclean plastic bag

what you pay for is the qualiity of the light detector not number of pixels.
I regard this as a practical choice rather than super pictures.

terryj