All,

Firstly apologies for yet another topic relating to cameras.

I am in the market for a good quality compact camera with a fairly reasonable budget of about £400. I have a back pocket/camelback Olympus Mju which is fine for trail, point and click photos but would like something better for printing out from. The main use of the camera would be for taking arty, scenic, family snaps. One I quite liked the look of was the olympus xz-1 but would any kind folk be willing to offer some advice as this really is not my area of expertise/experience etc.. Many thanks.

we are very happy with our panasonic lumix and it’s good quality wide angle lens.

I’ve recommended it to a few people who have gone on to buy one and also been most happy with them.

That XZ-1 has a very good buzz about it. Other good compacts are the Canon S95 or Lumix LX5

Thanks chaps, ideally would like an all in one so can’t be bothered with separate flash etc. I see the Cannon gets good reviews though. Any other recommendations? I intend on buying it in Heathrow T5 on Saturday to get it duty free and would like to use it next week whilst in Colorado Springs especially in Garden of the Gods. Anybody interested in photography should take a look at the geology around there, its amazing.

Lumix G2.

I have a Lumix g1 (no longer in production) and its boss.

I also have a Nikon D300 that i used to use semi professionally but I grab my G1 usually more often than not.

I also like to pack my Lumix LX3. smaller but slower and not as good in the quality.

The g1 is very impressive when put against an identical image from the D300! but 1/2 the weight and size.

Panasonic have just released the TZ-20, to very good reviews. It’s a 14Mp, with a 16x optical zoom, and a whizzy touch-screen that allows you to select a focus point, like a singers face at a gig, then it’ll track that person. It also has a degree of manual control. The only real criticism was the lack of a RAW facility. It’ll shoot HD video and stills at the same time. Seems to be around £300-ish, possibly less if you look around the interwebs. Techradar have a review of it. My old TZ-3 took excellent pics.

I intend on buying it in Heathrow T5 on Saturday to get it duty free

That’s not usually especially cheap mind, ime.

S95. I’m very happy with mine.
Will give you my Picassa link if you want to see sample shots. (Nearly everything I’ve taken is on there, so you should get an idea)

Hi Dez, yeah, if you could send me the link to your Picassa page so I can compare these then that would be great. Reading lots of confusing/conflicting reviews at the moment. All I want is good camera with a decent intelligent auto mode that can help me until I understand how to use it properly that has a decent zoom with a built in flash. Looks liek the G2, S95 or the XZ1… It’s like chasing your tail this!!!

I felt the same, asked for advice on here and followed it 🙂
Couldn’t be more pleased with the camera. Quality shots from such a small, easy to carry around camera. 2 downsides that I can think of are 1. the zoom isn’t massive, 2. takes a while to get used to not getting your fingers in the way of the flash when it pops up. Both things obviously down to the size of the camera, but easily outweighed by the picture quality.
Link: https://profiles.google.com/dezb99/photos I think that should work. From Halloween ’10 I think will be the S95 (the first Swinley album (Snigles) is definitely my old camera!)

Thanks Dez, much appreciated. When taking those photos had you played around with any of the advanced settings or was it on auto? If I can find one that has good default auto settings that actually work that would be good. Cheers

Lumix G2.

I have a Lumix g1 (no longer in production) and its boss.

It’s a good camera but not a compact.

Are you channelling Roy Walker?

It’s good but it’s not the one.

Thanks Grum, note you too recommended the S95. Any other suggestions from the STW massiff? Budget upto 400 for a good point and shoot compact camera? Canned the idea of buying from T5 so need to order one tomorrow to take to Colorado with me on the weekend.

Panasonic Lumix LX-5

Yes, the majority of the pics would’ve been taken in auto – just because the camera handles light so well automatically (check the ones in the Swinley folder how the bright sunlight came out so well). eg

Some I would’ve used the timing priority mode, because auto (or the Kids & Pets mode can never get good action shots) eg.


some portraits done using aperture priority.

It’s so damn easy to use these modes as the adjustment ring (round the lens) makes it so simple.