UKC

I'm looking for a new climbing camera as the focus on my old one is giving up. It needs to be able to order fit in a pocket or inside a jacket fairly easily otherwise it tends to just live in the rucksack and not get used. Budget of around £350.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Andy

In reply to Andrew W:

Olymups TG4, end of story...

total freeze, water, dusk, drop proof.

F2.0 lens, close focus in closeup mode down to 1cm.

will shoot RAW & HD video.

Zoom is a bit rubbish for length, but you can get their converter &tele lens to screw on the front.

http://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/c/Cameras/digital_cameras/tough/tg_4/index...

In reply to Snowdave:

Does it do "sweep panaoramas"?

In reply to hokkyokusei:


up to three frames, manual, auto & PC stitch modes. not used that function out of the 19 scene functions!

Night composition is very good! Takes several single pictures & overlays them to make the same correct exposure as a long shutter opening!

I just leave mine in 100 ISO & "A" aperture priority mode which gives you a selection of "F" stops based on the light available. I also use the exposure compensation which is plus or minus 2 stops each way with half or third variants.

The close up mode is as good as a half decent macro lens on an SLR, & that costs money!

In reply to Andrew W:

I use a Ricoh GR, which has a fixed (prime) 28mm equivalent lens, which also features 35mm & 47mm crop modes in camera (reduces quality though still more than acceptable due to the large sensor).

I am sure have seen them for around your budget, I have the GR 1, which does not have wifi. I did purchase the lense adaptor to allow filters to be fitted.

I find the image quality fantastic with the APS-C sensor, and the pictures edit & export nicely in lightroom.

I find the 28mm lens to be very versatile for the shots I like to take, people and landscape. It is very intuitive to use and fits into a small case. I am hoping to give it much more use over the spring.

I am sure would be suited for climbing pics if you can live without an optical zoom. I was after SLR image quality, in a compact camera body, and it seems to tick the boxes while costing considerably less than the Fuji X100 alternative I initially found.

In reply to Andrew W:

Thanks for the suggestions, I had been thinking of getting a camera with a fixed lens as I mainly seem to use the wider end of zoom as I mainly shoot landscapes or climbing.

I've had a waterproof camera before but I don't do a much in the wet anymore and used to find the image quality used to suffer a bit but don't know if this is still the case.

In reply to Andrew W:


Image quality is superb with the TG-4

In reply to Snowdave:

We're on the lookout for a new waterproof camera to replace a slightly erratic canon d10.

Is the quality on the olympus really that good? It seems to be the one thing in reviews which comes in as a negative when you look at the images in full size.

I did have an earlier model and the quality of photos outside of perfect lighting conditions was not great and it really struggled at times in poor light.

In reply to Mike-W-99:

I have an A3 (well I can get two A4 pages full size plus room at sides) size colour correct Computer screen for photo editing & viewing my TG-4 pics at that size is fine. If you need to look bigger & closer then yes is does drop off, but get a bigger sensor, which means a bigger camera, more weight, etc..

In reply to Andrew W:

I was also looking at the canon g7 x does anyone have any experience with this or similar cameras as it would seem to suit what I'm after fairly well although maybe a bit on the large side.

In reply to Andrew W:

I was after a 'quality' compact and bagged a Sony RX100 in the eBay flash sale yesterday, bit dinkier than the G7X and gets rave reviews. For £350 you could get one of the newer models. Not really sure of any outdoor credentials though.

Also looked at Sony HX90, WX350 and WX500, Panasonic LF1 and TZ70. Ended up a bit bamboozled by all the models available tbh.

In reply to Andrew W:

I have recently bought the original Sony RX100 for £250. So far it has been a great joy to use and produced great files form editing and it works well in low light. I do B&W conversion from RAW and every other compact has I have used has been OK but not great for this. The Ricoh GR was an option but I wanted a zoom

I'd say well done Sony keeping the RX100 on sale and dropping the price

Oh and yes it does sweep panoramas

In reply to Andrew W:
I've had a G7X for about 3 months - it's an awesome camera but it's really on the upper limit of pocketable. It's just about OK in a jacket pocket, but so far I've mostly clipped it to my rucksack hipbelt. The image quality is absolutely superb, at least as good as my DSLR (older, with a kit lens). Highly recommended.

You could also look at the other cameras in the same series - I think the G9X might be a little smaller.

In reply to Andrew W:

been using a cannon ixus 265hs for over a year now. easily fits in pocket, good zoom and quality of pics is fine. It's has wifi and mini USB for transferring files.

Controls can be operated whilst wearing gloves.

It's a which best buy and cost less than £100

HTH Davey