Best good IQ compact for around £300 used

Hmmm been reading reviews again and it seems the X100S wins for AF.

That's really important for me, so I guess the X100S is the one.

Just off to meditate and psyche myself up and prepare to spend £430 on a pocket camera....

You can zone focus withe Fujis, there is even a scale in the VF.
I'd also look for a small 35mm filmcamera, nice for a project since you will have access to the chemicals needed to develop yourself.

Something went wrong.

You could zone focus,there is a scale in VF. I'd also look at a 35mm filmcamera regarding your future education.

X100S does seem the one for AF, but bigger than I thought.

GR if Low light AF not taken in to account wins out for size and fitting in pocket.

Gah! Gr cheaper, legend of a camera.

But will I get street shots in low light?

Let say I'm in Soho, it's 10pm and through the window of a really cool looking bar I see some cool ambient lighting and an interesting scene.... one of those perfect Edward Hopper type shots.

With my D5300 and 35mm 1.8 G DX I nail it. I get focus on the humans through glass at night, ambient lighting only and even at ISO 6400 it looks great and prints a meter by a meter if I wanted to with great through frame acuity and depth rendering, plenty of detail.

Would the GR be up to the job...?

I'll buy the GR if I can get the shot described above, ambient neon / indoor light only and through glass, AF through glass and also prints look good even at ISO 6400.

I do know F2.8 is 1 and a 1/3 stop less than F1.8. Fuji X100 only a 1/3 stop less than 1.8 as F2.

but will it fit in a pocket?

EDIT - going for the GR due to size.

Can it do this though ....?

Night time, through glass, subject blur deliberate (Ghost Stories) HAND HELD.

I know the GR will be a stop and a 1/3 slower at f2.8 and is older sensor.

Could the GR still get this shot this clean / noise free - and also AF through glass at night?

It's the last question I need to ask before pulling the trigger on the purchase.

cheers all.

Easy Rider said:

Man been researching like nuts and you guys are right, large sensor, jacket pocket fitting and VF = lodsa money!

I'm almost tempted to get a Canon SL1 / 100D and pancake 24mm F2.8 but still too big really.

It seems for anything that fits in a jacket pocket, as someone else mentioned, unless you want to pay like £600 you HAVE to give up on one of my primary desired features.

Unless literally the Fuji X100. I've already missed two nice shots today because I didn't have a camera on me during my lunch break and am getting fed up of it....

I'm going to buy that X100 tonight and yes it is that price. I have found one for £200 as it is in quite bad cosmetic condition. But it works well and comes with 6 month warranty so sounds like a steal.

Click to expand...

If you are willing to go a little older and a little over budget

NEX-6:


and one of the following:

Sony 20 2.8

Sigma 19 2.8

Sigma 30 2.8

X100 is looking like your best bet though.

I'm kinda falling in love with the idea of the GR due to size and reputation.

Do you reckon it can do photos like the one I posted?

Easy Rider said:

I'm kinda falling in love with the idea of the GR due to size and reputation.

Do you reckon it can do photos like the one I posted?

Click to expand...

I have no idea what the Ricoh can do.... you should check Flickr to see what kind of output folks are getting from them. Truthfully for this kind of camera I don't think a viewfinder is such a big deal... with the lens being wide angle composing should be easy even in bright sunlight.

I'd say the thing to do would be to look at something like Flickr and then look at all of the shots taken with that camera you're looking at. There are various groups on that site dedicated to gear so that all of the photos in a particular group are shot with that model. You'd then see if there's many shots of the kind of thing that you do and you'd be able to assess the IQ.



I'm on Flickr a lot and I also happen to be into the same kind of spontanous, low light photograhy that you're into. I've seen a lot of what I consider to be very good examples of just this kind of photography done with Ricoh and Fuji cameras... so I think that either could do the job. If I had some extra money burning a hole in my pocket, I just might have to own one of these two cams... though I have to wonder if I'd miss having other focal lengths to play with. With the Fuji I know that there are a couple of screw on "attachment" type lenses which are actually supposed to be very high quality... less Ideal maybe than true interchangeable lenses, but could give you another focal length or two in a pinch... if you're willing to pay for the glass, which isn't cheap.



I might not be too worried about AF because those wide angle lenses aren't going to be too critical with focus anyway so you can probably do quite well getting in the ballpark with manual focus...

Easy Rider said:

X100S does seem the one for AF, but bigger than I thought.

GR if Low light AF not taken in to account wins out for size and fitting in pocket.

Click to expand...

Easy Rider said:

Gah! Gr cheaper, legend of a camera.

But will I get street shots in low light?

Let say I'm in Soho, it's 10pm and through the window of a really cool looking bar I see some cool ambient lighting and an interesting scene.... one of those perfect Edward Hopper type shots.

With my D5300 and 35mm 1.8 G DX I nail it. I get focus on the humans through glass at night, ambient lighting only and even at ISO 6400 it looks great and prints a meter by a meter if I wanted to with great through frame acuity and depth rendering, plenty of detail.

Would the GR be up to the job...?

Click to expand...

I use the GR snap option. No need for AF because of delay. Snap is like a wink of the eye just like a film camera. I set IOS 6400. Set F28 --- set meters to 2.5m or 5m and will have a wide DOF .

There will be some noise compare to a DSLR, but I like grit, especially b/w images ala Daido Moriyama.

Easy Rider said:

I'll buy the GR if I can get the shot described above, ambient neon / indoor light only and through glass, AF through glass and also prints look good even at ISO 6400.

I do know F2.8 is 1 and a 1/3 stop less than F1.8. Fuji X100 only a 1/3 stop less than 1.8 as F2.

but will it fit in a pocket

Click to expand...

Yes, pocket lint will be an issue.

Day or night I always hold my GR with a wrist strap. Power always on---finger on the shutter ready to snap instantly.

An aside: One can fine tune GR DNG raw files in camera. I can crop, covert color to b/w and b/a to color adjust EO in 1/3 steps to +1 and -1. There are many other options which I can't list now.

The best part is no need to take-out the SD card inset it to a laptop nor computer.

You can PP the DNG raw files any place any time Worldwide.

-saerin

SAERIN said:

Easy Rider said:

X100S does seem the one for AF, but bigger than I thought.

GR if Low light AF not taken in to account wins out for size and fitting in pocket.

Gah! Gr cheaper, legend of a camera.

But will I get street shots in low light?

Let say I'm in Soho, it's 10pm and through the window of a really cool looking bar I see some cool ambient lighting and an interesting scene.... one of those perfect Edward Hopper type shots.

With my D5300 and 35mm 1.8 G DX I nail it. I get focus on the humans through glass at night, ambient lighting only and even at ISO 6400 it looks great and prints a meter by a meter if I wanted to with great through frame acuity and depth rendering, plenty of detail.

Would the GR be up to the job...?

Click to expand...

I use the GR snap option. No need for AF because of delay. Snap is like a wink of the eye just like a film camera. I set IOS 6400. Set F28 --- set meters to 2.5m or 5m and will have a wide DOF .

There will be some noise compare to a DSLR, but I like grit, especially b/w images ala Daido Moriyama.

SAERIN said:

I'll buy the GR if I can get the shot described above, ambient neon / indoor light only and through glass, AF through glass and also prints look good even at ISO 6400.

I do know F2.8 is 1 and a 1/3 stop less than F1.8. Fuji X100 only a 1/3 stop less than 1.8 as F2.

but will it fit in a pocket

Click to expand...

Yes, pocket lint will be an issue.

Day or night I always hold my GR with a wrist strap. Power always on---finger on the shutter ready to snap instantly.

An aside: One can fine tune GR DNG raw files in camera. I can crop, covert color to b/w and b/a to color adjust EO in 1/3 steps to +1 and -1. There are many other options which I can't list now.

The best part is no need to take-out the SD card inset it to a laptop nor computer.

You can PP the DNG raw files any place any time Worldwide.

-saerin

Click to expand...

Got the X100 myself but find the GR very interesting due to size quality and features like snap focus.

For ER here is a review

A comparisson

And another

If you got a chance to check out the Nikon A I would do so.

--
Cheers Mike
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