Advice on a 'compact' please fuji or leica ?

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Eddie1

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I'm looking to buy a small high quality compact camera for walk around every day use as my big-assed canons are just toclunky and heavy
But
As I'm used to the quality of said big assed Dslrs what's a decent unit .

Seems to be either a Leica ( crazy money even used) or a Fuji x100
Anyone any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
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What about one of the omd's?
I got a em5 and can't get over the quality of it
 
Eddie1 said:
Seems to be either a Leica ( crazy money even used) or a Fuji x100
Anyone any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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If the Leica is a rebadged Panasonic I'd say go for the Panny, every time.

Most fun for little money IMVHO would be MFT and manual legacy primes and even with an older generation camera at low to mid ISO's you'll get DSLR quality.
 
Eddie1, how compact do you need? Do you need pocket sized (Sony rx100 or similar) or do you just want easily portable (e.g. Canon G1X). Do you want zoom? Or are you happy with a fixed focal length?

I'm going through the same questions myself at the moment. I have a Canon s95 which has served me very well for a couple of years. It's pocketable, and you really can always have it with you if you want. But, although it has many manual and semi-manual modes, they are difficult to access, because of a shortage of buttons. Which I think is the curse of all pocketables.

Slightly bigger might give you more control, because you get extra dedicated buttons.
 
I have a Canon SX280 that I carry round most of the time - wide for landscapes, 20x zoom (80x digital zoom), wifi, GPS, Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority modes etc. If you don't want the GPS/WiFi, the SX270 is the same camera without it.
 
Panasonic G3 and a 14mm prime. That's what I gravitated towards. Big sensor, fast glass, great IQ, instant shutter. 28mm equivalent is a really useful length [same as an iPhone, FWIW]. As a plus, there's a whole host of decent compact primes if you wish.
 
danbroad said:
Panasonic G3 and a 14mm prime. That's what I gravitated towards. Big sensor, fast glass, great IQ, instant shutter. 28mm equivalent is a really useful length [same as an iPhone, FWIW]. As a plus, there's a whole host of decent compact primes if you wish.
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But NO eye-sensor when switching from EVF to LV, beaut camera IMVHO, but the lack of that sensor used to drive me mad.

My recommendation for a quality compact would be the RX100 or LX7.
 
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Depends what you mean by 'compact'.

For me the term means a camera which is truly pocketable or which can be carried 24/7 on a trousers belt pouch.

And so my recommendation would be a Lumix Panasonic, FinePix F900EXR, or Sony RX100 II (which is what I have).

The large sensor and low light features of the RX100 II are exceptional. It's a heavy bit of kit but shoots RAW and results are astonishingly good - Just check out users' photos. Zoom is poor. A Richard Franiec grip makes all the difference to handling.
 
Eddie1 said:
I'm looking to buy a small high quality compact camera for walk around every day use as my big-assed canons are just toclunky and heavy
But
As I'm used to the quality of said big assed Dslrs what's a decent unit .

Seems to be either a Leica ( crazy money even used) or a Fuji x100
Anyone any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Small Leica's are really just rebadged panasonics. You mentioned the X100, it's a superb camera, X100s is even better. Have a look thru the X100 and X10/20 threads, you will find that list of people use them in addition to their bigger cameras, and even more have sold their DSLR's and are more than happy with the results the Fuji' give them. Me included.
Can't comment on the RX100, but from the comparison images I have seen with other high end compacts, even though reviewers rate the Sony highly, I can't really see much difference or if I can, it seems to me that it's not as good as some of the others even though it's pricier than most.
I just bought a Fuji XF1. Great little camera and truly pocketable when the lens is fully retracted. Images are on a par with the X10/X20. It looks the business too.
Allan
 
With Fuji the best ones to go for are with EXR. I've had several in the FinePix F*00EXR series and all very good.
 
Dave in Wales said:
But NO eye-sensor when switching from EVF to LV, beaut camera IMVHO, but the lack of that sensor used to drive me mad.

My recommendation for a quality compact would be the RX100 or LX7.
Click to expand...

agreed on the eye sensor, but I never use the LCD as a consequence and treat it like a proper camera. I just can't face the shutter lag on any compact, the AF on the G3 is pretty darn quick [remember I only use centre point/spot]. I could shoot all day at f/2.8 because the M4/3rds DoF is quite forgiving. The 14mm is a properly underrated lens, and so so small... I've owned heavier lens caps! Every time I try a compact [and I've owned an RX100, a LX5 and a TX7] I get frustrated by the smaller sensor and the shot delay. The G3 is [until the GM1, which is superbly small] the smallest proper camera out there. Plus, as a bonus, I use the 100-300 as a 600mm/5.6 wildlife combo when I'm out and about!

Still, I like the X100S but it's as large as the G3 in real world use. Same for the various NEX's I've owned or used [let down by the larger lenses, although the 16mm was another underrated gem]. I've always had a soft spot for the Samsungs, another company putting out small fast wide prime after prime.
 
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