Well, unfortunately the Canon G9 which broke on holiday is uneconomical to repair. I’m loathed to get a replacement one so I’m looking for recommendations for a compact camera I can stuff in my bag and carry around with me preferably before I’m told to bugger off to India on business with $contract.
Here’s the list of requirements, hopefully not too moon-on-a-stick…
- Needs to be good in low light situations without using flash, since I use it mostly for parties.
- Internal flash which doesn’t blind, external flash connector less important but a nice-to-have.
- Needs to be able to do f/2.8, preferably with ISO800 and above.
- Battery: Excellent battery life, bonus points if it takes Canon NB-2LH batteries (which sorta limits me to the G10 or a second-hand G9).
- Memory: Compact flash or SDHC (‘cos this is what I have tons of).
- Timer and long-exposure shooting.
- 10MP at least, definite bonus points if it does RAW.
- Size: Not too unwieldy, and will fit in my back pocket. The G9 just about did.
- Price point lower than £400.
- Not too bothered about video, if it does it then it would be good if it were HD.
I have already discounted the G11 because I don’t like flop-out LCD screens and it falls outside the price range. The Canon G10 has also been suggested, the dust-in-lens issues have put me off that a little although it meets most requirements.
Does anyone have any other suggestions please?
October 2, 2009 at 7:49 am
I think that the Panasonic Lumix LX3 probably meets your requirements, f/2 lens starting at a 24mm wide angle equivalent. Also, it has deliberately fewer megapixels to help reduce thermal noise which aldo helps in low light.
Downside for me anyway is that Apple don’t support the raw files in Aperture/iPhoto although Adobe does in Lightroom/Camera Raw.
That being said, I love this camera.