please help me choose a compact for traveling

saxk

saxk

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Brad 'Electron-Don' Foster
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ok so i have sold my 30d to fund a traveling camera for my round the world trip, i leave in a few weeks for over a year of traveling.

im so stuck about what camera to get its killing me.

i have narrowed it down to these three.

G10
canon-powershot-g10-prosumer-camera.jpg

SX200IS
canon-powershot-sx200-is-12x-zoom-digital-camera.jpg

ZT7
TZ7_450.jpg


now i know deep down that the 12x zooms of the latter two will be great for traveling, im not looking at the LX3 as it has a 2.5x zoom, which for me is not enough.

if the G10 had 10x zoom, which it should have, id take it right away. but it doesnt, but i can probably live with 5x, may get an adapter if i choose this one. i also like the bulk and size of the metal G10, over the small plastic 12x ones.

not bothered on HD video, but the sx200 cant zoom when videoing. TZ7 can. but this is a minor concern really.

the G10 has a 2.8 lens the others have a 3.5. again id prefer the wider aperture.

the TZ7 doesnt have a manual mode for some reason, as far as i know, being a DSLR user, all i use is the A,S,M modes. so the thought of a camera with none of these makes me week at the knees, but i dont really know how not having these will fair up in the rear world. any ideas ? like when it chooses iso 800 and f6 inside, you cant change it to 3.5 iso 400, or will the TZ7 do this on its own ?

price is not really a concern, i can afford any of them, but the sx200 with its cahsback is £150 less than the G10, not that it matters, but that £150 is a fair few night hostel in china/nam.

ive read alot about all these cameras, what im after is some rel life input from people that have used them, preferably two of them to compare.


is there any other cameras out there that would be similar that i should consider ?

please feel free to bombard me with pics and as much info as you can.

any help would be very greatly appreciated people

thanks, brad.
 
i got all excited when i saw a reply, then noticed your name next to it.

ohhh the disappointment

seeing as your here ryan, help me out mate.
 
I'd go for the G10.

I went away with just a compact a month back, and i NEVER used the zoom functin at all.

Only kept it fully zoomed out...
 
ill admit the G10 excites me, the other two dont.

no hurry *** i got a few weeks to decide.

thanks ant
 
How much of the 12x zoom function is worth it? 12X Optical zoom doesn't produce quality images and tends to be more of a gimick than anything which will assist you in getting good images. For what it's worth, I travelled in Australia for 6 months with a 2.1mp Canon Ixus with 3x zoom and can't think of a single image I would have missed by not having 4x more zoom. Depends what you want to photograph of course. Greater zoom is useful for wildlife but not really necessary for anything else.
 
The zoom comments are all something to really think about. Will a 12x zoom really be more use than 2 or 3 if it's choice between a 35-400 over a 24-80.

It's all about what you're going to shoot. Time and time again the smaller zooms of the Pany LX or canon G cameras are what works best for folks like us lot.
 
i guess i want the zoom range for flexibility, but in real life situations i might not need it as much as i think.
 
saxk said:
i got all excited when i saw a reply, then noticed your name next to it.

ohhh the disappointment

seeing as your here ryan, help me out mate.
Click to expand...

Lol sorry.

Anyway have you been into a shop and tried them all? simple really is you may like one more on paper but find it totally un-userfriendly.
 
well i went down to jessops on sat, but the building next to it was on fire, so the whole place was closed off.

ill try get down there some other time, but your right i do want to get to hold one and have a play as it might not fit my hands well.
 
Panasonic Lx3 , 25mm wide with a f.2.0 lens =) , can use manual mode, has a hotshoe and slightly cheaper than the G10.
 
G10 - I went through the same quandry.

The build quality for travelling is good - solidly built.

Lens range, forget electronic zoom, or digital zoom as they call it - it is just in camera cropping. You can do that at home from any camera output. The 28 - 140 optical zoom on the G10 is as useful as it gets. It was brought in from clamours from us lot to do something about the limited lens of the G9 (not wide enough and too long).

File sizes and RAW shooting - G10 produces outstanding image quality (big files if you want them - A2 no problem without interpolation).

Manual mode, manual focussing.
Aperture priority is my favoured option.
Shutter priority
Too many Program modes for me to bother even looking at. A and M are all I use.

Exposure comp dial, right there - an actual knob to turn, not a fiddle with menus and crud.
Flash exp comp.
Everything a DSLR has in fact, in a compact package.
Brilliant. I use mine professionally and it works.

If the other works better for you - fine.
 
thanks for your input lensflare, these are all the reasons i like the G10 the best, but with any camera and with any review that i read there are downsides to everyhting.

why cant these people jsut make the perfect camera, if the G10 had 24mm, f2.0 and was £100 more id buy it in a heart beat.
 
Doesn't Ricoh make something similar to the G10?
My input would be, go for something with a wider faster bottom end, you'll VERY rarely use the higher focal lengths (anything more than about 120/150mm) and when you do a lot of compacts take SO long to hunt for focus that the opportunity has passed.

I thought ricoh made something with a GOOD 24mm bottom end, metal body, splash proof & could accept filters/ hoods/ a decent wide angle convertor (down to 16 or 19mm square format), but its a few quid, £3-400 for the basic cam, Can't remember the name for the life of me though :confused:
 
After my fillm point and shoot decided to fail half-way through my himalaya trek (using all my technical skills I fixed it be gently introducing to a rock -) I then moved onto a massive 2MP fuji 2800 zoom - found it the other day together with the 64mb card!

Anyway we had a TZ5 but got a TZ7 a few days ago after my wife also introduced the camera to a rock, this time not on purpose and with more force.

So far it looks good. We used the TZ5 when we went to India last year (also had DSLR), whilst quality obviously not up to SLR quality, the results were still perfectly acceptable. We found the zoom useful for sneaky street photography and wildlife and the wide angle good enough for landscapes \ buildings.

Low light quality is not great - I guess the fuji range are best for those.

I can't compare it to the G10, and you would assume the G10 would give the best quality out of all of them.

If you're looking for the best quality I guess the G10 is the way to go, but we did find the zoom useful and of decent quality. I'd suggest having a go in a shop, it's quite impressive.

Good luck and enjoy your travels, it should be an amazing experience.
 
I've heard only good about the G10 and tbh, out of those 3, I'd go with the G10.

My personal recommendation would be a Sony W Series camera. I'm not sure if it's exactly what you're after but they're fantastic little cameras and take some great shots. I have a low end one (Sony W80) and I love it. Here is a shot from it.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2172/3528154380_3134028068_b.jpg

Some of the higher end ones have 5x optical zoom and seem really good :)
 
thanks AKR and George

i have a fuji F10, well my missus does, i only jsut found out how good it is, as cameras are still compared to the F30 and F10 for ISO hendeling, so thats a big bonus, and should i need to i can use her camera at night, its also a little smaller and more pocketable and cheaper, so if its lost or stolen on a night out its not such a big deal as the G10.

i think its going to have to be the G10, as i said its the one i really "want", but i have to be sensible and chose the one best suited to our trip etc, not what i want to play with lol.

thanks for all the help.
 
I'm late to the conversation brad and just wondering why you see such a long zoom as necessary for travel unless you are into wildlife.

Whenever I travel I tend to shoot more wide angle than zoom because I want to capture as much of the scenery as possible. And of course if your camera optics are very good you can always get that zoomed in shot with a crop.

Well it does sound as though you've already made up your mind and may already have bought the G10, a very good camera indeed.

I don't know what your budget is and I haven't compared prices but I was going to suggest you consider the benefits of going micro4/3rds with an Olympus Pen E-P1, which opens up a stunning new ball game in digital photography.

Edit: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusep1/
 
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wow, very late.

i bought a g10 which was stolen in china, then bought a g11 in vietnam which is now broken

bad times
 
mark greenhill said:
I'm late to the conversation brad and just wondering why you see such a long zoom as necessary for travel unless you are into wildlife.

Whenever I travel I tend to shoot more wide angle than zoom because I want to capture as much of the scenery as possible. And of course if your camera optics are very good you can always get that zoomed in shot with a crop.

Well it does sound as though you've already made up your mind and may already have bought the G10, a very good camera indeed.

I don't know what your budget is and I haven't compared prices but I was going to suggest you consider the benefits of going micro4/3rds with an Olympus Pen E-P1, which opens up a stunning new ball game in digital photography.

Edit: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusep1/
Click to expand...

Could this be a record for longest time between two comments on a thread..
 
saxk said:
wow, very late.

i bought a g10 which was stolen in china, then bought a g11 in vietnam which is now broken

bad times
Click to expand...

Bad times as you say, and sorry to hear that, but could you comment on your expereince with the cameras at the time? I'd be interested, since the thread has been resurrected.
 
saxk said:
wow, very late. i bought a g10 which was stolen in china, then bought a g11 in vietnam which is now broken bad times
Click to expand...
Ha saxz! ... I am spared by the enormity of my own stupidity. :(

As your g10 is busted it seems that my advice may be timely after all, mate! :shrug:
Untitled-1-11.jpg
 
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haha mark, now im not travelling so much and have 5 canon ef lenses at home i think ill be looking for a cheap DSLR

Martyn, i really got on well with the camera, some functions that are not available like bulb etc i used CHDK for (which is hope is not the problem with it now), sure there are loads of things that could be better with it, but on a whole, for what it is, it was the perfect travel companion.

iso is good, nice and wide, tough build, hot shoe. i took alot of great pics with it, ok its not as good as a pen and you cant get the aperture as wide as the s90, but over all, including its relatively compact size, when compared to the pen(+more focal length) it a marvellous bit of kit.

on the plus side, mine seems to have started to behave a little bit.
 
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