Vacation picts/all-around

[paul_111]

Hi All,

I'm having a tough time with choosing my next camera. I have a film N6006 that I love, but it's just too damn bulky to carry around on vacation and everywhere. That said, I would go Canon 30D or a Nikon dslr in a heartbeat, but I really want the freedom of a compact.

That got me looking into the superzooms, like the Panasonics, but I am quite afraid of the noise levels. I do have a Canon A410 (4MP, 3x optical zoom) which is just 'ok' -- the picts are nothing to write home about.

I want a compact dslr, really. Something that will fit in my pocket and take excellent quality picts. Is there a good compromise? Oh, yeah, I really like wide angle lenses, too. I left my list at work, but I did come across a 7.1x optical zoom, wide angle compact.

Can anyone suggest something that may fit the bill? Any experiences good or bad?

Thanks!
Paul

[mtclimber]

Paul-

The Panasonic FX01 has received a lot of attention. It has a 28mm wide angle lens and OIS.

MT

[E.T]

paul_111 wrote:

That got me looking into the superzooms, like the Panasonics, but I am quite afraid of the noise levels.

That applies to all small sensor cameras, there's differences caused by different sensor (small effect) and amount of noise removing (huge effect) but all are inferior compared to dSLRs.

But for balance I've seen very grainy normal sized paperphotos made from normal daylight shots of film camera (said film was little more sensitive than normally used ones and gotten old) and I think in that size highest ISO of about every digicam is very clean.
(except small size can't cover greatly muffled colours produced by Sony's "high sensitivity" noise removing)

Oh, yeah, I really like wide angle lenses, too. I left my list at work, but I did come across a 7.1x optical zoom, wide angle compact.

Yep, taking backsteps doesn't help with landscapes.
But remember to look focal lengths instead of zoom numbers which don't tell anything about important things. (smaller focal length means wider field of view, 28 or under is good)

That's propably some of the Ricoh's R"x"-models...
KonicaMinolta A"x" models have similar 28-200mm 7.1x zoom but aren't pocket compact. (equal to dSLR -controls don't fit to that size)

That Panasonic is one other possibility.
Then Kodak V570 has second 23mm fixed lens.
Cameras with good wide angle are very few... might be because of small zoom number cameras with better wide angle would make those media sexy "super"zooms look bad.

[mtclimber]

ET-

Here is a nice Kodak V-570 Sunset example taken at 23mm effective wide angle.

MT