I’m looking for the ideal holiday camera – something pocketable but able to take decent pictures, and quickly when needed. In particular, the electronic zoom on most compacts drives me up the wall, as you try to get the right zoom, whirring the lens in and out, while your subject walks out of frame.

Sooo… are there any good compact cameras out there with manual zoom control? My last camera was a Panasonic GX1, which isn’t terrible, but ideally I’d be after something a little smaller, as the manual lens really makes it a bit hefty to put in a pocket.

Fuji XF1 – coincidentally I have one for sale. 🙂

Lumix GM1 or GM5 with the 12-32mm lens is pretty compact.

Hmm, thanks for those, great recommendations.

It’s got me thinking, actually – the GX1 body isn’t bad, so I might look into getting the 12-32mm lens as it’ll fit.

Thanks!

Fuji X30 form here http://shop.fujifilm.co.uk/refurbished-digital-cameras discount code p258BTCC467 sadly out of stock at the mo

In particular, the electronic zoom on most compacts drives me up the wall, as you try to get the right zoom, whirring the lens in and out, while your subject walks out of frame

So don’t buy a camera with a zoom lens. Just use your legs to frame the shot. If you genuinely like taking candids of people (and I applaud you for this) then you want something really ‘fast’, as in, fast to start up, focus and be ready to shoot. Either that or learn to zone focus.

The best camera you can buy for outright speed is the Ricoh GR range. They have a ‘snap focus’ function that means you can set the camera to switch on at a specified aperture and focal point and shoot within something like one or two seconds. You hold the shutter button down and ‘snap’ you’ve got your pitcture whether the camera was turned on or not.

If you still want a zoom then look at the ranges from Fuji and Sony. The Sony RX100 seems to be a firm favourite on here, and not without reason as it is a great camera. I personally prefer the way the smaller sensor in the Fuji’s renders.

LUMIX TZ72 has a manual zoom facility, there’s a ring around the lens that gives you full manual zoom, plus it has a proper viewfinder as well as the main screen, and switches between them automatically using an eye sensor.
30x optical zoom, very compact, great little camera.
Mine is my third LUMIX, and the best yet.

@count
Did you mean the tz70… i cant find the 72.

I need a new camera and was pondering getting one of these.