DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Closest I've seen to a universal carry-around camera

Started Jan 22, 2018 | User reviews thread
Bangers and Mash
Bangers and Mash Veteran Member • Posts: 3,010
Re: Closest I've seen to a universal carry-around camera

Sam in Hawaii wrote:

For as long as I can remember, which is getting shorter as I get older, I've wanted a camera that met some specific criteria, believing that the best camera is the one you have in your hand.

small enough and compact enough form factor to schlep around pretty much all the time.

some measure of manual control or override, not full auto all the time.

rugged enough to survive a trip to the beach, falling down, etc.

IQ that's not an embarrassment.

I've tried a lot of choices, including a Nikon T35 (baby film camera, expensive and fragile), Powershots S400 and S500 and a few small Canon's, Nikon Coolpix D70, I think it was, various Nikon 1's that I pinned great hopes on, a TG 830 (tough little camera, now my glove box camera) and a few I've forgotten. They all miss at least one criterion. In the case of the Nikon 1's, they miss pretty much all of them; what were they thinking?

I know what you mean regarding the Nikon 1. Yes, what were they thinking? When it first came out, I thought, nice alternative to a large boat anchor DSLR. So I opted for one. After trying it for a while, back it went. Not worth a plug nickel.

The little TG5 checks all four boxes. Not perfect, but it'll do until my dream comes along. It's a nice complement to my M4/3 system.

I bought it for my wife, but never thought of it as a compliment to my M4/3 system. But, yes, i suppose it is. My carry around camera is now the Pen-F, and when the wife get's back from her trip, the TG-5 will hang out with the Pen.

-- hide signature --

A smart person knows what to say, a wise person knows whether or not to say it.

 Bangers and Mash's gear list:Bangers and Mash's gear list
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Olympus TG-5 Olympus PEN-F Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 II R +4 more
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow