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

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?

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.

Agree Same that the TG-5 is a great carry around camera; and fun to shoot with too.

Dale

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?

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.

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.

Bangers and Mash wrote:

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.

I believe that the Nikon V2 and V3 hit 3 out of the 4 criteria, and only fail on environmental ruggedness. And the Nikon AW1 hits that particular criteria.

The Nikon 1 IQ is only an embarrassment when compared to higher end ILC system cameras, not compacts. Yes, the V2 aqnd V3 are 1.5-3 EV less capable in low light when compared to current top tier interchangeable lens systems, but other than that, the IQ is just fine.  Also  the cameras are FAST to focus and shoot bursts and capture action.   Sadly, Nikon well and truly botched the marketing of the 1 System, and when they finally got access to a decent low-light 1" sensor, they never put it in an enthusiast body to succeed the V2 and V3, and only put it into a point and shoot style body (J5) before killing the system.

I can't believe we're actually arguing about the Nikon 1. I thought they'd all gone to that big darkroom in the sky. Agree, they had the best autofocus I've ever seen in a small camera, but were inferior in almost every other way. The control set alone on the V1 was enough to make one crazy. And looking back at photos I took with my V2, the noise was worse than I expected. Too bad, I really liked them, hoped the V3 would have gone a different direction (built in EVF, for one thing). I think the system must have been designed by a committee. Or maybe Ashton Kutcher really did have a hand in it.

I would still like a really waterproof, good, 1" sensor or larger, camera, but it doesn't exist. The AW1 was too prone to leak, I guess the Nikonos designers retired

Sam in Hawaii wrote:

I can't believe we're actually arguing about the Nikon 1. I thought they'd all gone to that big darkroom in the sky. Agree, they had the best autofocus I've ever seen in a small camera, but were inferior in almost every other way. The control set alone on the V1 was enough to make one crazy. And looking back at photos I took with my V2, the noise was worse than I expected. Too bad, I really liked them, hoped the V3 would have gone a different direction (built in EVF, for one thing). I think the system must have been designed by a committee. Or maybe Ashton Kutcher really did have a hand in it.

I would still like a really waterproof, good, 1" sensor or larger, camera, but it doesn't exist. The AW1 was too prone to leak, I guess the Nikonos designers retired

The V2 is actually the only Nikon 1 camera that I'll defend, because it's the only one without brain-dead ergonomics (and not surprisingly, it's the only one I kept and used - and I totally agree with you about the V1 and V3). I also agree with you about the noise, although it was no problem when shooting at ISO 200-400.

I really wish that once Nikon had access to the sensor that eventually went into the J5, they would have taken the low resource approach and just dropped it into a V2 body, called it a V5 and not changed much else and THEN abandoned the system.

I am about 95% a Micro 4/3 user (including E-PL7 and E-M1 i ), but I can still find a small percentage of subject matter for which my V2 is better: basically, Birds in flight, Air shows, and rapid, random direction changing sporting events - all in bright sunlight. And that's it, nothing else.

Watching the evolution of the Nikon 1 product line, one has to wonder if Nikon's product marketing team was not taking orders from Olympus and Canon with the specific objective of causing the product line to fail.

I have to agree. My small camera has gone through a Panasonic LX5, Nikon Coolpix A and a Sony RX100 (all sold or gifted). Now settled on the TG-5.

I realized that what I wanted all along was a small TOUGH camera that was small enough to take anywhere and not too expensive to risk taking anywhere. A nice bonus is the well thought out accessories from the flash ring (macro) to the wide and tele convertors.

The TG-5 is always on my belt and a few accessories are in my pocket. Certainly a large upgrade from my iPhone. One happy camper here.