UKC

My trusty Canon S90 finally died after several years hard use, and it's not worth paying to repair. I'm bamboozled by the choices. Need a new quality compact for climbing that is: genuinely small; big sensor; good width-to-zoom ratio; reasonably operable with gloves; max £500 or so (less would be good of course).

The LX100 and RX100 III look quite closely matched

I hate to hurry these decisions but the Canon only just gave up the ghost and I really ought to buy a replacement before the end of tax year.

Any opinions gratefully received!

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

The controls on the RX100 seem very small. I was seriously tempted but gave up when I tried it and found them too small even with bare hands, let alone gloves. Mind I do have big hands and feet and I do not slow down for cattle grids.

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

I used to use a mk1 rx100 and now use an lx100. I am sure the next rx100 is a lot better, but having seen one last week, it is also a lot bigger than the first version which in my optinion makes it lose one of its key advantages.

For rock I find i am now far less likely just to clip the camera to my harness as it's much bigger, although it is still not that big. While out and about in the hills I much prefer the slightly more bulky lx100 due to better image quality (in my opinion), and the really easy to use dials to control the exposure. (I did find I could mostly control the rx100 in gloves in winter, but some things were certainly annoying to do in gloves. althoguh this can be said for some of the deeper settings on the lx100 as well such as white balance, focus mode etc.)

The lx100 doesn't have a very big zoom range, but I tend to mainly use it wide anyway. The extra 4mm at the wide end (24 vs 28) is also useful on the lx100.

I don't tend to use the electronic viewfinder, but having seen my friend use it on the rx100 mk3, it looks like a lot of faff to just use as its not just ready, while on the rx100 it is just ready to use when you put it up to your eye.

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

Thanks guys, really useful

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

I've got an RX100 iii and in Greenland at -20 odd, despite big gloves, it was still extremely usable.
Not played with the LX100 but the IQ from the RX100 is incredible for the body size.

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

Dan, I was looking at this camera a month or so back. There are lots of comparisons online see this for starters
http://cameradecision.com/compare/Sony-Cyber-shot-DSC-RX100-III-vs-Panasoni...

For various reasons I decided to stick with my current camera, the RX100 M2 but it was the manual controls on the LX100 which interested me as camera menus (as on the RX100) can be time consuming when I don't want them to be. The zoom on both are similar, but my understanding was that I wouldn't get any increase in picture quality by buying a new camera so I kept my wallet shut.

I still like those manual controls on the LX100 though ...

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

I bought the original rx100 as they are now cheap. £250 over the counter in John Lewis

I did think about the LX100. I think the 2 things I would have got from the LX100 would have been better control of depth of field with the faster lens and view finder. I'm less convinced the image quality or low light performance at the wide end are that different. The LX100 handling would be better in some but not all respects for me.

I found handling all the cameras in a shop very helpful

But the RX100 screen has a sunny day mode that works well. My huge hands are fine on the controls and even OK in thin gloves.

For the sort of grab a snap type shot whilst climbing I'm not sure that a pull up small view finder would be that useful

If I had been prepared to spend more i would have gone for a G7x for the better zoom range or a G5x for the better zoom and a brilliant view finder. But both of these cameras are slow with RAW so i would probably have waited for the mark ii versions

But in summary I'm happy to have saved money on a RX100


for reviews I like Cameralabs

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panasonic_Lumix_LX100/