So I am looking for a small pocket-able camera for times when I really need to go light.
The rest of this post is long and boring, feel free to skip and post your opinions on high-end compacts!
Although I am perfectly happy taking a mid-sized DSLR and 1-2 lenses up a 13,000 peak, will trek 70km over 2 days including camp gear + DSLR --- I am realizing there are times when a small camera will be better. E.g, last year I did a ski mountaineering race and would have loved a pocket camera to capture the moments. There are days when I count every gram on my body!
Requirements:
I have always thought the Canon G10/11/12 type camera were pretty good for people who want full manual control. But the lens starts at 28mm and they aren't so small. I heard the S95 offers the same IQ in a smaller package....
The S95 looks like good IQ but without many manual controls and the lens starts at 28mm. Seems to be the smallest camera that offers such IQ. weighs only 193g.
The LX5 seems to be basically perfect for me. 24mm on wide end, the lens is fast (F2.0-3.3) and should be able to some limited DoF and is almost a stop faster than the S95, there seems to be an interesting mode to get high resolution panoramic formats, e.g 9MP 16:9 format vs the 7MP for the Canon S95. The move mode seems to be better than the S95, which is a bonus. It seems the high ISO performance is worse than the S95's, but I think the nearly 1 stop faster lens at the tele end will more than make up for this?
The big downsides are its price, seems very expensive for a compact!
Which leads me to the E-PL2. For not much more money I could get the E-PL2 + kit lens. I have selected this m4/3rds due to price and small size - I'm sure I would prefer the GF2 type camera but that is a different league. Now I am sure this will offer the best IQ, but i' afraid that it is just too big. The camera itself seems OK (extremely plasticly though!), but the lenses are still big and not pocket-able. There some pancake lenses, the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 would be a must, but then I loose a lot of flexibility and the cost starts to rise a lot. Still, I really hated the 4/3rds concept and the m4/3rds has taken sometime for me to accept but after some research it seems to have some merit.
In summary, I think the LX5 is almost perfect but very expensive. Should I suck it up and shell out? Alternatively, I could look for a 2nd hand LX3 (or S90 etc) and look for a 2nd hand m/4/3rds camera...
The rest of this post is long and boring, feel free to skip and post your opinions on high-end compacts!
Although I am perfectly happy taking a mid-sized DSLR and 1-2 lenses up a 13,000 peak, will trek 70km over 2 days including camp gear + DSLR --- I am realizing there are times when a small camera will be better. E.g, last year I did a ski mountaineering race and would have loved a pocket camera to capture the moments. There are days when I count every gram on my body!
Requirements:
- Ideally I want a lens that starts at 24mm equivalent, and I don't really need to much reach. Wide is more important, but reach is a bonus.
- I want excellent IQ at base ISO (I will mostly shoot daytime landscapes) But I hope that the bigger sensored compacts offer usable high ISO to capture memories even if they aren't particularly usable for big prints/commercial use.
- It doesn't have to fit in a short pocket, but a very big trouser pocket is a plus, but fitting in a big jacket pocket is a must (e.g. a ski jacket with a big pocket)
I have always thought the Canon G10/11/12 type camera were pretty good for people who want full manual control. But the lens starts at 28mm and they aren't so small. I heard the S95 offers the same IQ in a smaller package....
The S95 looks like good IQ but without many manual controls and the lens starts at 28mm. Seems to be the smallest camera that offers such IQ. weighs only 193g.
The LX5 seems to be basically perfect for me. 24mm on wide end, the lens is fast (F2.0-3.3) and should be able to some limited DoF and is almost a stop faster than the S95, there seems to be an interesting mode to get high resolution panoramic formats, e.g 9MP 16:9 format vs the 7MP for the Canon S95. The move mode seems to be better than the S95, which is a bonus. It seems the high ISO performance is worse than the S95's, but I think the nearly 1 stop faster lens at the tele end will more than make up for this?
The big downsides are its price, seems very expensive for a compact!
Which leads me to the E-PL2. For not much more money I could get the E-PL2 + kit lens. I have selected this m4/3rds due to price and small size - I'm sure I would prefer the GF2 type camera but that is a different league. Now I am sure this will offer the best IQ, but i' afraid that it is just too big. The camera itself seems OK (extremely plasticly though!), but the lenses are still big and not pocket-able. There some pancake lenses, the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 would be a must, but then I loose a lot of flexibility and the cost starts to rise a lot. Still, I really hated the 4/3rds concept and the m4/3rds has taken sometime for me to accept but after some research it seems to have some merit.
In summary, I think the LX5 is almost perfect but very expensive. Should I suck it up and shell out? Alternatively, I could look for a 2nd hand LX3 (or S90 etc) and look for a 2nd hand m/4/3rds camera...
Last edited:
