Compact wow's
 

I finally took the plunge and bought a Compact - WX300 Sony - used it for the first time tonight :rolleyes: now I haven't read any of the instructions, and must remember I only got this to take out when I do not wish to carry the SLR. Just not impressed first time, it feels so small, miss the eye piece and not really happy with the quality of pictures. In many ways wish I had bought from the Shopping Channel - their 30 day money back guarantee now seems very attractive!! Now need to spend a few days trying to get to know this camera! Hope no one minds me putting up a comment like this but just need to get this out of my system! Thank you for listening.

Hi Mary

Its hard trying to find a compact camera that compares well to a dslr. There are quite a few about now though.

I went through the same thing. What I found was, the small sensors in most compacts don't compare well to the larger sensor in their bigger brothers.

After a few bad choices, I now have a Sony nex c3. It is a lot smaller than my dslr, has interchangeable lenses and a large sensor, (the same size sensor as a crop dslr). It performs as well as a dslr in most situations although sometimes a little fiddly at times, due to its smallness.

There are some stunning small cameras out there now, but they do tend to be pretty expensive. A couple that spring to mind are the Sony RX100, Fuji x100s, Sony Nex series.....and many more.

I think the small sensor compacts are a dying breed due to camera phones now matching them or being even better.

I can understand how you feel as I am always looking for the ideal pocket camera for when the DSLR is just too much to take with me. I have been through a number of decent compacts and mirrorless systems looking for the right one for me. I've finally realised that a true compact just won't satisfy my needs so have given up on them (until I find a Sony RX100 cheap as that seems to be the best of the bunch). I have recently picked up a Panasonic GF5 with the power zoom, it is a very small set up that will easily fit in a coat pocket (too big for trouser pockets though). It is an excellent little camera with good AF and excellent IQ and is currently selling at £249 with the little kit lens (plus a free spare battery from Panasonic) which is a great deal. I also picked up the Olympus 45mm f1.8 lens with is tiny (and weighs almost nothing), this is a stunning lens which I often take out instead of the zoom. It is slightly longer than the kit zoom but still fits in a pocket and is a real pleasure to use.

Here are a few shots taken with my GF5 with the Oly 45 f1.8, it really isn't far behind my Canon for quality.

Thank you Lee Dann and Postcardcv - I do not know why I didn't ask on here weeks ago, except I have been quite busy. Postcardcv - these sample pictures you have shown are amazing. The next few days will be interesting for me just to see if I can improve with this compact - time will tell - I really do appreciate your recommendations.

Difficult to know how to help here. I always find that there is a little disappointment when the new purchase doesn't deliver great images from the outset. But after the learning curve things tend to improve.

The Sony RX100 has rated a couple of mentions in this thread and I recently bought one for my wife as a birthday present. She can never find it ...because it's always where I left it. An amazing piece of kit.

Graham

Any chance you could post some photos from the RX100 Graham? The big advantage of the RX100 is that it has a fairly large sensor which seems to be one of the biggest factor effecting image quality in compacts.

Mary your WX300 has a small sensor, it needs to have in order to get such a big zoom range into such a small package. It is a trade off, if you want the zoom range then the IQ will suffer. Better IQ from a larger sensor means much smaller zoom range or a much bigger camera. I suspect that you will get used to using the camera within it's limits and will get good results from it.

RX100 samples
 

I guessed that it would be of little use to post small sized shots, so would you care to try this link to my Flickr site. I have created a set with a variety of scenarios giving the camera a bit of a test.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/graham_...7634007672057/

Graham

I have taken some pics today - the pana pics are very good - impressed with that and some others are not too bad - so much to learn on it!

I have just bought the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ27, its is the same specs as the TZ30 but without GPS. A great little handbag camera, I am quite happy with the results so far it has a 20x optical zoom. These are some pics I have taken in full size loaded up to dropbox for you to look at. There is two pics of each scene the second one of the two is zoomed in 20x. Plus a macro shot. The photos are straight out of the camera no editing.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...s140613413.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...s140613414.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...s140613415.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...s140613416.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...s140613417.JPG

Oh Christine - thank you very much - I had a Panasonic in mind as it was a favourite of my brother's but went for the Sony - have reviewed my pictures and am pleased. I think it is just changing from DSLR to compact - the compact is so handy to carry too. I really like the pana feature and the movie is quite good too. Hope you enjoy your compact too this pictures are brilliant.