Best IQ on a point & shoot digital

Which digital point & shoot camera has the best IQ and a zoom that starts at least at 28mm?

They say the Panasonics (FX35, FX500 etc) exhibit either soft images or overprocessed images...

Thank you!
Michel

The Fuji F100fd has the best IQ but doesn't seem to excel in other areas, most notably to my knowledge with colour, average macro performance , edge sharpness and not the best menu structure. Having owned an F30 I'd have to agree with the menu issue. I think too many people on here obsess with IQ without taking in to consideration other factors . Good IQ will allow for larger print sizes without noise showing but wont necessarily compensate good colour reproduction and other issues that affect exposure.

I own a Nikon S600 which is perhaps not the fastest performing with write times but has reasonably good IQ, good enough for 15" x 10" and great colour.

Depending on whether you want wide angle, IS, ultra small size etc, then I'd advise finding the right camera for you with good enough IQ for the print sizes you want. Oh, and don't forget handling. You really need to test a camera out in store to amke sure your happy with the size, feel and aesthetics.

By far the new fuji F100fd.
IQ is great even at high iso. 800 iso pics are incredible for a p&s camera !
DR is great too, far better than panasonic.

Depends on your budget...Sigma DP1 has prob the best P&S quality as it almost a APC-S sizes Faveon sensor
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He took a good photo and gave himself a pat on the back...He took a bad photo and blamed the camera, Hmmm...

Welcome to DPR.

I can't help you I'm afraid, but I can tell you that neither the Fuji camera, nor the Sigma are right. The former has a zoom that starts at 33 ( old film equivalent ) and the Sigma doesn't have a zoom. It seems that the art of reading is rapidly disappearing as you clearly stated your needs. I hope that someone else is able to help you,

Nick

nick_webster said:

Welcome to DPR.

I can't help you I'm afraid, but I can tell you that neither the Fuji
camera, nor the Sigma are right. The former has a zoom that starts at
33 ( old film equivalent ) and the Sigma doesn't have a zoom. It
seems that the art of reading is rapidly disappearing as you clearly
stated your needs. I hope that someone else is able to help you,

Nick

Click to expand...

That's because the OP asked questions that contradict each other. However I m not a wise guy who makes smartass remarks so I ll go ahead and give the answers.

The answer to the question the OP asked in the thread title is DP1.

The answer to the question asked in the first sentense is LX2.

The answer to the question asked in the second sentense is no, they don't have very good overall IQ due to the 1/2.33" tiny CCD sensors they have,

As you found from the other posts it is not an easy question to answer. You might receive more helpful answers if described the purpose of your camera.

IQ is a small part of the camera experience. If you're only going to use 4X6 prints most P&S cameras will suffice. DPreview is an excellent source of information concerning the whole camera.

I believe it was the review for the TZ3 that trashed the IQ and in the conclusion the reviewer said he thought it was the perfect travel camera. He liked the fact that the TZ3 fit in a pocket and it has a 10x zoom starting at 28mm.

How can he say that? Most images are printed at 4X6 or viewed on screens in less than optimum conditions. It is hard to impossible to see the imperfections.

Maybe because I started with Canons; I usually find the compromises Canon makes the least irritating.

REd

The best Image Quality at Wide angle are:

Canon S60
Olympus C-7070
Nikon 8400
Fujifilm F810 (32mm though)

Sigma DP1 has actually the best quality due to its large sensor, unfortunately it has Red Color problems and other operational issues for the price.

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Thank you guys!

The reason I was looking for the best IQ is that sometimes I do not carry my big digital SLR and just wanted to make sure that if some extraordinary scene (mostly landscape) happens in front of me at least I would be able to get a decent digital shot from a point and shoot. The bells & whistles are then not important to me.

Michel

Sorry, I have a F100fd currently under my nose and I can promise you it starts at 28mm!

They all stink, trust me I have been looking. Awful, the lot of them.

michou12001 said:

Thank you guys!

The reason I was looking for the best IQ is that sometimes I do not
carry my big digital SLR and just wanted to make sure that if some
extraordinary scene (mostly landscape) happens in front of me at
least I would be able to get a decent digital shot from a point and
shoot. The bells & whistles are then not important to me.

Michel

Click to expand...

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Updated May '08

The specs I have seen led me to believe that it started at 33, my mistake,

Nick

when the OP asks for "best IQ and zoom" I would understand him to mean it requires a zoom or am I mistaken ?

Nick

My best advice is take IQ as just one aspect of what makes a good compact. What's the point of perfect pixels if the colours and sharpness are off? You have to consider how the camera handles, is it pocketable, can I get prints at the sizes I want, how long does the battery last.? All in all these are far more sensible criteria to choosing a pocket camera. If you focus exclusively on IQ then you may end up with a camera that is not comfortable to use, not responsive enough and produces awful looking colour!!

...if landscapes is your primary objective, then get DP1 (if you can get over DP1 price) - if you don't care about camera's operation speed and if you are looking for an ultimate IQ - then in IQ department non of any other compacts gets anywhere close to DP1...
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...life is short - paddle harder...

Tariag said:

By far the new fuji F100fd.
IQ is great even at high iso. 800 iso pics are incredible for a p&s
camera !
DR is great too, far better than panasonic.

Click to expand...

Agree the F100 produces good results. But how can you be so sure that DR on F100 is 'far greater' than Pana? Pana has made progress and I would guess the difference between them is no more than 1 stop, and to get that from the Fuji requires you use ISO400 whilst the Pana sits at ISO100.

I would love to be proved wrong, but have yet to see any really convincing evidence about the F100 DR. Sure it does add some DR, but what is the baseline? If you care to read some of the Pana threads you will see that the Intelligent Exposure function on the TZ5 seems to squeeze a little more DR out of harshly lit scenario's - something like D lighting or Sony's DRO, although Pana's sales blurb says it is achieved by 'variable ISO'. So Fuji is not the only one pushing the envelope.

Hopefully DPRE review will shed some light on this area. What do you think?

Nick