Any recommendations?
Happy to go second hand if required.
The smaller the better.
iPhone?
iPhone?
Exactly what I was thinking. So many people are holding phones, someone actually taking a photo is just not going to be noticed, whereas a camera stands out somewhat. Especially for street photography, it’s easy to be holding a phone in front of you, slightly tilted as if the light’s reflecting off the screen, and be taking photos, especially if you use the volume control as a shutter button, which I often do, more so for landscape photos, because I’m holding the phone in both hands so either my thumb or a finger is on the control.
It’s much more likely to be with you all the time anyway; a top photographer, on being asked what was the best camera, replied ‘the one you’ve got with you’.
Back when I was driving for British Car Auctions, I would have never carried an actual camera, but it was essential that I have my phone, for obvious reasons, and one day after dropping a car off at Bruntingthorpe, I suddenly found myself with a couple of hours to kill, before anyone could pick me up. This allowed me to wander around the aircraft stored there, and grab photos like this one…
A good modern phone with good cameras will be ideal for most situations, unless you want a zoom with a very wide range, say up to 10-12x.
I’m using an iPhone at the moment, but I want more optical zoom options.
@CountZero great picture; might need a nudge to straighten it though.
What about an Om-systems tg6 or 7.
I used them at work. Good macro facility, can work underwater. Gets and overall decent write up in the photography world. They're robust as at work mine takes a beating.
And I definitely notice the difference between phone sensors (pixel 8pro) and my own camera (R6 MK1, obviously) and the work camera. But we're getting into pixel peeping and printing photos.
Sony RX100 VII - 1" sensor, Zeiss 24-200 F2.8-F4.5 lens.
I think they put a big zoom on from V onwards if you want a cheaper s/h model
I have the IV, but that's only 24-70 I think, but does have an F1.7 Zeiss and built in ND filter
What about an Om-systems tg6 or 7.
I used them at work. Good macro facility, can work underwater. Gets and overall decent write up in the photography world. They're robust as at work mine takes a beating.
Good shout, mine also slips nicely into my cycling jersey back pocket.
Yeah i think I'd be looking at Sony. The A6400 is slightly bigger than the RX100, but has a bigger sensor. So it depends where you want to draw your line of compromise!
RX100 VII is the one I'm looking at, I really want a longer optical zoom for distant landscapes, in a small enough package that I take it on bike rides as a matter of course.
If it was available in OPs budget, though, I'd have bought it by now. 2nd hand prices start at about £800.
I had a Sony RX100 a while back - the last one with the smaller zoom. Image quality was excellent although it started to suffer a bit at the telephoto end. If you are looking at one of these be sure to check the reviews for whichever version appeals and specifically the quality at full zoom.
I was in a similar position recently - considering a quality compact camera more for when I didn't want to bring one of the mirrorless setups out but the phone wasn't enough. Budget similar to yours. Then my phone failed so I picked up the latest iphone pro to cover both scenarios. So far so good - the three optical lenses are not as good as a proper zoom but produce very good results.
Would I still like a decent compact camera? Yes. Has the new phone removed all the justification I had? Also, yes.
hah!
My phone is a Pixel 7a which is pretty mediocre on the camera front. For Xmas I'll be getting a nice little pancake prime lens for my Fuji XT2 to make it more of a coat pocket option. I kind of enjoy the lack of a zoom for some reason. Makes me think about the composition a bit more
Thats just a snapshot of a guppy. Its fine, but if you want to get a better photo without resorting to photoshop they phones quicjly become a pain in the arse.
For example i* would open the aperture quite wide either on a lense or a thumb wheel and increase the shutterspeed to compensate so the the visual distraction under the wings can be placed out of focus to better define the aircraft. Its doable on a pro setting in the phone but its a crap experience, slow and involves taking you mind away from the image.
"The best camera is the one you have with you" doesn't mean don't take a decent camera it just means if you DON'T have any camera you will miss every shot. He's also got a book by that name so he's fairly obviously going to push it as a mantra.
I would 100% whip out my phone if its what i had but if i was going out to take photos or somewhere i suspect i might want to take "photographs" i would be taking an actual camera with actual controls and a sensible user interface for the purpose.
I definitely take it to extreme though...
The RX100s mentioned above are good. Largish sensor means decent image quality and when using large apertures, a degree of (real, not fake phone) blur / bokeh should you want to. It also has proper controls although a bit fiddly because of the size of the camera.
Another good reason is that it can record in RAW opening up possibilities in editing. A standard compact will likely just record JPEGs limiting what you can do. This might not matter to you though.
The RX100 my daughter has is 24-70mm full frame equivalent so not very wide or very telephoto. This might be restrictive in what you want to use it for but other models are available.
Used Micro 4/3.