Finding a Small High-Quality Digital Camera

Say: under $300.

This is not so easy. I’ve been trying myself: trying to find something small to travel with that also gives good results.

What’s so hard?

• Smaller digital cameras often have very poor quality images.
  • Some say the size of the sensor is the key factor; others disagree.
• The jpeg’s in digital cameras are generated on-the-fly. I suspect the engine that does this needs to be good, and they don’t dedicate the chip space/power in a small device to that end. (But that’s just my guess.)

What to do? Four pathways can help you make a choice; they are not mutually exclusive.

(While this blog is normally reserved for thoughts about teaching & learning technologies, a big question we often face is: how to choose the right tool, and so I thought "choosing the right camera" was close enough.)

1. Check out some thoughtful online resources.

• A recommendation engine. Snapsort.com has a recommendation engine.
  • Their prices are based on the lowest found, and that includes used, so they’re quite misleading.
• Sophisticated reviews.
  • I find DPreview intelligent and reliable.
    • They’re highly detailed, and so it’s often wise to skip to the next-to-last page of the review (“Conclusions”).
  • Cameralabs does thoughtful reviews. They tend to be only a few pages, but I still often skip to the last page (“Verdict and Scores”).
• Others’ experiences. I actually find the ratings on Amazon.com and BHPhotoVideo very useful.
  • You can search in price ranges (never accurate on Amazon) and then sort by the average customer review.
  • On Amazon, you can also pick a rating (say: four stars), then sort by “Relevance,” which often excludes some odd items showing up in the wrong place.
  • Individual reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt, as people get cranky about things relevant only to them. But the good reviews are very helpful, and the aggregate is, I think, meaningful.
• Inductively. Look on photo sites like Flickr.com to see what results others get. If they’re indifferent, either the camera is bad–or it has not inspired enthusiasts (which is a different thing, likely with some overlap).
  • Flickr lets you sort images by camera. Photos from the under-$200 Lumix ZS–25 look great, but you have to remember these are likely the most-clicked-on or highest rating.
  • Flickr also has groups, so you can see a bunch of photos that users consciously shared with other users of the same camera.
    • A Lumix LF1 group.
    • Photos tagged as “Lumix LF1”
    • A Pentax Q10 group
    • Photo’s tagged as Olympus XZ–2
    • A group for photos from Nikon J1’s and V1’s
• Scientifically. DXOMark tests sensors and lenses and publishes the results.
  • N.B. They’re testing the sensor, not the camera. This seems finicky, but it lets you compare the image quality separate from questions like: are the buttons easy to use?
  • The results are wonky, but they are effectively reduced to numbers, and so this lets you make some rational choices–e.g., “$300 more for lower picture quality? I don’t think so!”
  • You can actually search by size and price, though “under $500” is basically the lowest category.

2. Ask people.

I’m writing this, so I’ll tell you my experiences (not my opinions).

Lately I’ve been testing some smaller, high-quality cameras.

• The Olympus XZ–2 is the follow-up to the SZ–1.
  • I got this for sale around Xmas.
  • It’s still on sale these days for $300.
  • I’ve been shooting with it lately and quite like it.
  • It has close-up modes for flowers and the like.
  • It has a wide aperture, good for shooting in low light and for separating the subject from the background (i.e., “shallow depth-of-field”).
  • The user has access to manual controls (aperture, shutter speed, etc.). I believe you can also use it very automatically, though I haven’t used that mode.

3. Buy a small, pocketable camera that’s highly-rated by various sites.

• Cameralabs writes guides for various categories of camera–such as compact cameras.
  • In this category, they recommend (among other, more-expensive cameras):
    =
    • The Panasonic SZ25.
      • Sometimes an older model is still on sale, not that different, and a cost savings: the older SZ20 is still around and quite inexpensive.
    • The Panasonic LX7: DXOmark score = 50.
      • This is the newer version of the well-rated LX5. I shot with that and liked the results.
      • This should be better and is only $300.
      • Cameralabs rates it very highly, and DPReview is quite positive, too.

4. Get something that would normally be more expensive but that’s older and on sale (probably to make way for forthcoming new models).

• In this category, you’ll find small ‘mirrorless’ cameras.
  • These are like a smaller digital SLR (DSLR).
  • They have interchangeable lenses, like the SLR’s of old. And the lens can be more expensive than the camera.
  • As with DSLR’s, they usually come with a lens whose effective cost is sometimes about $25–a tremendous bargain.
  • If you buy this, you’ll be in a ‘system’ (a combination of camera bodies and lenses and accessories), and so you can eventually get a better lens (even used).
• In terms of size, these would be more ‘around the neck’ cameras than ‘pocketable,’ though sometimes the lens is a ‘pancake,’ which is small and flat, as the name implies.
• *Be aware that because the sensor is smaller than 35mm film, the equivalent of a “50mm lens” on an SLR is often a different (much smaller number) on these cameras.
  • A “normal” lens (neither wide angle nor telephoto) is 40–50mm.
  • A wide angle lense might be 28–35mm.
  • A 90–200mm lens would be a telephoto for capturing objects at a distance.
  • The word “equivalent” tells you that, say, a 20mm lens acts like a 40mm lens on the camera advertised.
• Sony, Olympus, Nikon and Pentax make excellent models.
  • BH Photo & Video has several of this type of camera now selling for under $300.
    • These include cameras whose sensors DXOmark rates very highly:
      • Sony NEX–3N: rated as 74.
      • Nikon 1 S1: rated as 56.
      • Nikon 1 J1: rated as 56.
      • Pentax Q10: rated as 49.
    • By comparison, the Olympus XZ2 I’m using now seems pretty good to me and has a sensor rating of 34.

A general tip: handle the actual camera, if you possible can.

Try to go to the store and test whatever you want to buy. I find people discover they just don’t like a given software interface or where the buttons are. If you have trouble working the dingus right off, often it doesn’t get much better.