Point & Shoot Camera Suggestion

Out of context: Reply #15

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  • Hombre_Lobo0

    Finally got round to replying!

    Ive been going through the same decision recently.

    Options for high end P&S:
    Nikon p300 (no RAW, but 24mm 1.8 lens)
    Canon s100
    Lumix LX5
    Olympus XZ-1
    Fuji X10

    For me in terms of pocketability the X10, LX-5 and XZ-1 dont tick the box of fitting in a jeans pocket comfortably. They are just a bit too chunky, so in my eyes dont quite class as pocketable. The x10 being the largest. They are great cameras, but nowhere near as compact as the p300 and s100 (and s95).

    This is because they have much brighter lenses at full zoom (so they have to be bigger), seen here -

    The s100 goes from f2 @ 24mm, to f5.9 @ 120mm.
    Major difference at full zoom in terms of how much light they get in. This is often overlooked.

    Quote from a review -
    "To be fair, the S100 is zooming further, but zoom it back a bit to 100mm and the aperture only opens a fraction to f5.6, while at 85mm, it only manages f5.0. For the record, the S100's maximum aperture at various focal lengths is: f2.0 at 24mm, f2.2 at 28mm, f2.8 at 35mm, f4 at 50mm, f5 at 85mm, f5.6 at 100mm and finally f5.9 at 120mm. "

    The LX5 is great, 3.3 at full zoom is v nice, and it has an awesome 1cm macro focus distance.
    But for stills the s100 seems to better it in all respects, low light included (but consider the aperture, when zooming the lx5 might be better).

    But remember this is when pixel peeping. Im sure if you spent a day with both you wouldnt see any major difference in the image quality between them both as they are both very good.

    The XZ-1 is awesome too. Brightest of the bunch and resolves more detail than any other compact at lower iso, only slightly beating the s100, but lacks the 24mm wide angle.

    Dont forget the LX5 & XZ-1 has a lens cap, which some people find very annoying.

    The s100 also has better video than the others. The xz-1 has notoriously bad video btw.

    The p300 is awesome, crazy good value if you dont care for RAW. 24mm lens @ 1.8, great video too, just a fraction worse than the s100, BUT it can do 120fps 1280x720p! It also has a better screen than all the others @ 900k resolution, compared to 400k of the rest.

    So for me, I've decided on the s100 becuase its pocketable and awesome and has RAW. The s100 also has an inbuilt 3 stop ND filter, which can be used in video to keep the shutter speeds down where they should be (this cam doesnt have manual video control).

    I'd be happy with an LX5 or XZ-1, but i want a pocketable RAW 24mm cam. so s100 it is! :)

    Hombre_Lobo 0Permalink
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