What Pocket Sized Camera Should I Choose?

Three months ago I bought a C-700 because of the 10X. My main interest for it was photography at Sprint Car races, as I found my original C-2000 had insufficient zoom. Now I have just replaced my C-700 with a E-100, and am in the process of learning it, but realize that because of its size, I would like to also have a shirt pocket size unit when I am roaming the pits etc and any other situation that doesn't need the zoom or rapid shot of the E-100.

For now anyway, I would also like this unit to be my "go to" camera when I don't need the 10X or the R/S of the E-100, so even though I am a relative beginner, I would like something more than a point/shoot, and with high resolution and probably a 3X zoom, so that I can grow into it. As a retired person, I am also hoping to develop a general interest in photography as a hobby.

For no rational/explainable reason I prefer to stay with Olympus, but I would not close the door to other brands. It also doesn't have to be the newest/latest model, but on the other hand it would be OK if it is. I would likely turn to Ebay as a source for my purchase, as that is where I bought the C-700 and the E-100.

This is my first post on this forum, but I was encouraged to go for the E-100 as a result of the posts here. I have been highly impressed by the depth of knowledge and the cooperative spirit to help one another that has been shown by so many.

Your suggestions and insights would be most appreciated.

Jim

I don't know what your budget is or how small a camera you want, but read the article, at the bottom of this post, from dpreview about the Casio EXILIM EX-Z3.

And I quote, "The European Imaging & Sound Association (EISA) has named the EXILIM EX-Z3 from Casio as Digital Mini Camera of the year 2003 / 2004 at the IFA fair in Berlin."

Although I'm an Olympus user, I suggest you take a close look at this camera before you make your decision. I've provided the link below.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0308/03082006exilimeisaaward.asp

Jim,

If MP isn't that important to you, I think the Fuji 2650 (or 2600 if you can find it) is a great bargain.

--
Randy C.
C-2100 * C-5050 * TCON-17
San Antonio, TX

Happy with my C-2040, but its bulk meant that it was usually not with me. Also, time to upgrade to something more than 2 MP.

My choice is the C-50. Ordered it just today. Not the highest quality among 5 MP cameras (I almost went for the C-5050), but it is pocketable, and that makes all the difference.

For critical work when size doesn't matter, I have a Nikon SLR 35mm system. All the more reason for the digital to be small. In addition, I had been taking a Canon ELPH APS camera on trips when space was limited, and I would have rather had a digital.

So, I expect the C-50 will be a much better fit for my needs than the C-2040 was.

Well, its not Olympus but I really like the small Canon cameras.

I have a S45, my cousin a S50 and my friend a 230 Digital Elph. These cameras work great, have some flexibility in aperture/shutter controls and do fit in a small/med. pocket pretty well. With several thousands shots snapped, I think the S series is one of the best on the market. The power of the Digic processor really makes a difference when looking at photos back to back.

I've seen the Oly Stylus 400 and they look promising but I have not actually used one so I can't comment. But you might want to look into that if you are brand loyal. And its supposed to be weatherproof, just in case.

g7_chord said:

Happy with my C-2040, but its bulk meant that it was usually not
with me. Also, time to upgrade to something more than 2 MP.

My choice is the C-50. Ordered it just today. Not the highest
quality among 5 MP cameras (I almost went for the C-5050), but it
is pocketable, and that makes all the difference.

For critical work when size doesn't matter, I have a Nikon SLR 35mm
system. All the more reason for the digital to be small. In
addition, I had been taking a Canon ELPH APS camera on trips when
space was limited, and I would have rather had a digital.

So, I expect the C-50 will be a much better fit for my needs than
the C-2040 was.

Click to expand...

Not sure if it would be small enough, but the new Ricoh Caplio G4 Wide looks interesting. You get a wide angle and really fast response, something that I find important in a pocket camera for spontaneous shooting. I hear good things about the Konica 510 which the Minolta G500 is the same as I believe.

wjcostley said:

Three months ago I bought a C-700 because of the 10X. My main
interest for it was photography at Sprint Car races, as I found my
original C-2000 had insufficient zoom. Now I have just replaced my
C-700 with a E-100, and am in the process of learning it, but
realize that because of its size, I would like to also have a shirt
pocket size unit when I am roaming the pits etc and any other
situation that doesn't need the zoom or rapid shot of the E-100.

For now anyway, I would also like this unit to be my "go to" camera
when I don't need the 10X or the R/S of the E-100, so even though I
am a relative beginner, I would like something more than a
point/shoot, and with high resolution and probably a 3X zoom, so
that I can grow into it. As a retired person, I am also hoping to
develop a general interest in photography as a hobby.

For no rational/explainable reason I prefer to stay with Olympus,
but I would not close the door to other brands. It also doesn't
have to be the newest/latest model, but on the other hand it would
be OK if it is. I would likely turn to Ebay as a source for my
purchase, as that is where I bought the C-700 and the E-100.

This is my first post on this forum, but I was encouraged to go for
the E-100 as a result of the posts here. I have been highly
impressed by the depth of knowledge and the cooperative spirit to
help one another that has been shown by so many.

Your suggestions and insights would be most appreciated.

Jim

Click to expand...

don't buy anything until having a good look at the OLympus D40Z. It was the camera of my choice when deciding to make photography my latest hobby. Without much thought to anything other than size, and looking at a few sample pics I knew it was the one to keep in my shirt pocket for when photo opportunities presented themselves. The picture quality from the camera is excellent, I believe the only limitations being the person behind the lens (me). But in a very short time, I feel I've had considerable success without ever having one complaint about my camera. When I get dud shots, I search until I find what I did wrong, rather than look for faults in the camera. You'll find plenty of sample shots in my pbase gallery link in my signature. But if you would like to see the real potential of the camera then please check out Lalady's gallery at ..

http://imageevent.com/schweetheart

Good luck and happy shooting ..

jack
http://www.pbase.com/jackeroo

as my second camera. I have found however, that I don't use it as much as I thought I might at car races, since the EFV readout of all the settings is so much more readable on the E-100, and I use AP or SP a lot.

Great for everyday pics though.

The only thing I really don't like about the D-40 is that you can't chose high image quality at lower resolution.

I shoot almost everything for the web and would love to be able to shoot 1280 X 960 at high quality SHQ.

wjcostley said:

Three months ago I bought a C-700 because of the 10X. My main
interest for it was photography at Sprint Car races, as I found my
original C-2000 had insufficient zoom. Now I have just replaced my
C-700 with a E-100, and am in the process of learning it, but
realize that because of its size, I would like to also have a shirt
pocket size unit when I am roaming the pits etc and any other
situation that doesn't need the zoom or rapid shot of the E-100.

For now anyway, I would also like this unit to be my "go to" camera
when I don't need the 10X or the R/S of the E-100, so even though I
am a relative beginner, I would like something more than a
point/shoot, and with high resolution and probably a 3X zoom, so
that I can grow into it. As a retired person, I am also hoping to
develop a general interest in photography as a hobby.

For no rational/explainable reason I prefer to stay with Olympus,
but I would not close the door to other brands. It also doesn't
have to be the newest/latest model, but on the other hand it would
be OK if it is. I would likely turn to Ebay as a source for my
purchase, as that is where I bought the C-700 and the E-100.

This is my first post on this forum, but I was encouraged to go for
the E-100 as a result of the posts here. I have been highly
impressed by the depth of knowledge and the cooperative spirit to
help one another that has been shown by so many.

Your suggestions and insights would be most appreciated.

Jim

Click to expand...

Especially if you have plenty of memory for the E-100 (sm that is). It produces very good images and has complete control auto, program, apeture priority, shutter priority, full manual. It is slightly larger than canon S400 (which is also an extremely good choice) which makes it not quite as pocketable. The canon may produce slightly better images (imo) but it does not have any manual control over shutter speed or apeture. I have both and have been very satisfied with them.

I have an Olympus Stylus 3.2 that is shirtpocket small, takes great fotos, is fast and is rainproof. My wife uses it now on vacations when I'm wielding my C-750 but sometimes when I want to be discrete or just shoot without fuss or just don't want the weight I ask for it back.

Another vote for the D40z/C40z exelent pics and full manual overrides.

Colin

wjcostley said:

Three months ago I bought a C-700 because of the 10X. My main
interest for it was photography at Sprint Car races, as I found my
original C-2000 had insufficient zoom. Now I have just replaced my
C-700 with a E-100, and am in the process of learning it, but
realize that because of its size, I would like to also have a shirt
pocket size unit when I am roaming the pits etc and any other
situation that doesn't need the zoom or rapid shot of the E-100.

For now anyway, I would also like this unit to be my "go to" camera
when I don't need the 10X or the R/S of the E-100, so even though I
am a relative beginner, I would like something more than a
point/shoot, and with high resolution and probably a 3X zoom, so
that I can grow into it. As a retired person, I am also hoping to
develop a general interest in photography as a hobby.

For no rational/explainable reason I prefer to stay with Olympus,
but I would not close the door to other brands. It also doesn't
have to be the newest/latest model, but on the other hand it would
be OK if it is. I would likely turn to Ebay as a source for my
purchase, as that is where I bought the C-700 and the E-100.

This is my first post on this forum, but I was encouraged to go for
the E-100 as a result of the posts here. I have been highly
impressed by the depth of knowledge and the cooperative spirit to
help one another that has been shown by so many.

Your suggestions and insights would be most appreciated.

Jim

Click to expand...

works mucho better with 2000 mah batteries. i just got 3 sets of 2100maH at target for 8.99 per 4 pack.

wjcostley said:

Three months ago I bought a C-700 because of the 10X. My main
interest for it was photography at Sprint Car races, as I found my
original C-2000 had insufficient zoom. Now I have just replaced my
C-700 with a E-100, and am in the process of learning it, but
realize that because of its size, I would like to also have a shirt
pocket size unit when I am roaming the pits etc and any other
situation that doesn't need the zoom or rapid shot of the E-100.

For now anyway, I would also like this unit to be my "go to" camera
when I don't need the 10X or the R/S of the E-100, so even though I
am a relative beginner, I would like something more than a
point/shoot, and with high resolution and probably a 3X zoom, so
that I can grow into it. As a retired person, I am also hoping to
develop a general interest in photography as a hobby.

For no rational/explainable reason I prefer to stay with Olympus,
but I would not close the door to other brands. It also doesn't
have to be the newest/latest model, but on the other hand it would
be OK if it is. I would likely turn to Ebay as a source for my
purchase, as that is where I bought the C-700 and the E-100.

This is my first post on this forum, but I was encouraged to go for
the E-100 as a result of the posts here. I have been highly
impressed by the depth of knowledge and the cooperative spirit to
help one another that has been shown by so many.

Your suggestions and insights would be most appreciated.

Jim

Click to expand...

--
JennZ
http://www.littleflurry.com
http://www.pbase.com/littleflurry
'me photo happy person'

I bought a C-50 in May 2003 and have enjoyed it. I still use my Canon Elan 7 when I plan to photograph; I take the C-50 when I don't have any photography plans. I have found the C-50 to take high quality pictures and I set the camera to take SHQ for all pictures. I have learned to wait for the green and amber lights to stop flashing before I take the picture.

My best photographs are portraits and landscapes. I find the SHQ works best in landscapes because it allows me to see the individual leaves and branches in trees and the details of flowers. The 4 MP cameras like the Canon S400 just provide too many blotches of color in landscapes. I didn't buy a S400 because of the lack of resolution. The C-50 has no noise control so it has more noise in low light pictures but much better resolution in landscapes with a lot of light.

g7_chord said:

Happy with my C-2040, but its bulk meant that it was usually not
with me. Also, time to upgrade to something more than 2 MP.

My choice is the C-50. Ordered it just today. Not the highest
quality among 5 MP cameras (I almost went for the C-5050), but it
is pocketable, and that makes all the difference.

For critical work when size doesn't matter, I have a Nikon SLR 35mm
system. All the more reason for the digital to be small. In
addition, I had been taking a Canon ELPH APS camera on trips when
space was limited, and I would have rather had a digital.

So, I expect the C-50 will be a much better fit for my needs than
the C-2040 was.

Click to expand...

Have a serious look at the Pentax Optio 450.

Background is that my wife has been secretly poring over digital camera ads for some time now and comparing features etc. The summary of her efforts was that the Pentax Optio 550 was the way to go. Then I got into the act and did a bit of online research and found that the very similar Optio 450 was a better camera, in the meaning that it provided better images.

The attractions are a nice small pocketable size with a 5x optical zoom. It's the only little camera with a 5x lens. There's also some digital zoom but we won't talk about that.

In trying to pack 5 megapixels into the 550 model they made the images much noisier than the 4 megapixel 450 model, so beware of the "more pixels is better" argument.

Lately the 555 is released to replace the 550, so maybe they have improved the image? Who knows?

Anyway, the site at http://www.lamker.de/ had some side-by-side images taken with the 450 and 550 and I downloaded them and printed them at the same size my wife would be using. The 4 megapixel images looked clearer on paper than the 5 megapixel images at the same printed size. The extra noise in the 550 actually modified the image to such an extent that the final resolution looked worse than the 450.

Based on the fact that I'm getting good results on A4 paper with my 3 megapixel C-730, then my wife should be able to get very nice results with 4 megapixel on 4"x6" dye-sub or 5"x7" inkjet prints for her albums.

Pity the camera takes SD card, so we have to buy into another memory type. It uses a lithium ion battery and is reputed to get maybe 400 shots (not tested yet by me) per charge. As well as full auto and scene type settings, the camera does have manual control, aperture and shutter priority, manual focussing and a few more features unexpected in a little camera. File type is jpeg only on the 450 model but that is no problem as I turn sharpening back to minimum and that yields a better jpeg to play with in Paint Shop Pro 8.

The Pentax line come with the gimmick "3D photography" so you can take two shots on the one frame, print them and then put them into the cheapo 3D viewer provided in the box. Not tested by me yet but the samples in the shop looked OK.

Regards................ Guy

I thought I had finally made a decent choice on a lower priced, very small and light portable model to have with me all of the time.

I bought a Nikon Coolpix 3100 today and I ended up returning it immediately. It felt really good in my hands, and I had seen some wonderful photos taken with one. Unfortunately, the LCD, besides having some bright red stuck pixels looked terribly grainy, like a tv with bad reception, and the camera seemed to go into "sleep mode" within a few seconds (with the lens still out). UGH!

I looked at a Canon A70, and that one was crystal clear, but it was much heavier. I was looking for a pocketable camera, or at least a purse-friendly one. I'd also love to get one that is good with macro shots. (the A70 I tried in a store had trouble focusing as closly as it claimed)

The Nikon SQ looks really cool, but the reviews are so-so. The swivel screen on is appealing, and the LCD is supposed to be fantastic. It seems real sturdy too, but the images are noisy, from what I've heard. (great macros though)
I haven't seen a D-40 anywhere to hold and get a feel for.

The Pentax Optima 450 sounds GREAT, but of course, it's almost $200 more than I was going to spend on the little Nikon.

Why is this simple quest so difficult? Do I just want too much from a pocket sized 2nd camera?

oh yes, one last question for my knowledgable friends here... I really like the C-2100's EVF... What is the smallest camera that still has one?

I have an e-100RS as well and find the Canon PowerShot "s" series to be very handy, durable, and easy to use.

I have an s100 bought my son an s230 as a graduation gift. At that time the s400 was too new for consideration. There have been plenty of http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read_opinions.asp?prodkey=canon_s400 reviews of the s400 since then and I would not hesitate to buy one of them... hum... maybe after 3 years and 6,000 images I need to consider upgrading myself.

bump

I got sick of evaluating minute details and variables. I couldn't even locate half of the models recommended to me, so I just dove in and bought something that had decent reviews and I nice $50 rebate. I went with the little Nikon 3500. Swivel lens design, 3mp, about the size and shape of a fat cell phone (fits nicely in a cell phone case) and it takes wicked macros. Check this out, not cropped:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid79/pe410ff551c149f24fb103bf4e2acc9fe/fb224839.jpg.orig.jpg

I actually like it a lot! Only $299 at Office Depot, minus the $50 rebate (good til lthe end of Sept). $250 is decent for this model. A bit hard to find though. The 2mp version is still easy to locate, and I understand it performs well also, and the price is less.

To be honest, the quality has improved in cameras so much in recent years, you will be hard pressed to find a really poor choice in the top brands.

Just pick what feels good in your hands and what you can afford. Play with it a few days and return it if it's not right for you.
Sue

How about Olympus mju 300 or 400? P&S and xD cards and expensive batteries... Nice pictures in the reviews.

Fuji Fine Pix A303: simple P&S and AA batteries but xD cards again. But a dial on the back to select auto, macro and self timer: meaning no messing around squinting at little menus... Good pictures from what I've seen in reviews.

Or Pentax Optio 330RS because of AA batteries and CF cards. And, again nice pictures.

All straight forward put in the pocket and take anywhere cameras with a minimum of messing around to get the photo...

Well, that's my opinion anyway.

Have fun, David

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. At this time, I seem to be drawn to either the Pentax Optio 430rs or the 450.

The 430RS is cheaper, has 11mb on board, and uses CF memory as does my E-100, but has a 3X optical. The 450 is newer and has a 5X optical, but costs more and uses SD memory. Both are 4mp, but use proprietory rechargeables....a minus.

Any opinions with respect to the better choice? Is there any reason to chose a 430GS over the 430RS other than it uses AA's?