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Point and shoot with 'best' high ISO performance?

mjm6

Member
I am looking for a point and shoot camera for the office...

I have two requirements. The first is that is has very good high-ISO performance (up to 3200 maybe?) and the second is that it has a zoom lens that goes as wide as a 28mm (35mm equivalent).

Can anyone recommend a camera that meets these two requests?

Beyond that, I don't care about shooting RAW, and I'd prefer that camera to be small and easily pocket-able if possible. I'm not particular to brand for this camera.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.


---Michael
 

mathomas

Active member
Hmmm. Good luck with 3200 ISO on a small-sensor camera. I'm very interested to see what people recommend, myself.
 

Terry

New member
Well there are two ways to look at it. The Olympus XZ-1 has good performance not sure how well 3200 will do BUT it has the fastest lens of any point and shoot on the market so at 28mm you will have an f1.8 lens. That should keep you away from ISO more often than on any other point and shoot around.
 

Oren Grad

Active member
I've been working with a Panasonic LX5 recently, and spent a lot of time reading reviews and playing with sample files from its close competitors before I made my purchase. My answer would be that there isn't any camera that meets your first requirement.

But in the end, what sort of image character you're willing to tolerate is a decision that only you can make. So best to get hold of some high-ISO samples from the obvious candidates - Panasonic LX5, Canon S95, Olympus XZ-1, Samsung TL500 - and judge for yourself.
 

bradhusick

Active member
The sony NEX cameras have great high-iso performance. They are not easily pocketable. The XZ-1 is a great camera but ISO 1600 and beyond are noisy. The fast lens helps a lot.
 

mjm6

Member
Good point Terry. The faster lens will help avoid the higher ISO in some cases.

Oren, Thanks for the list of likely suspects. I'll look over those and see how they fare.

My experience is with high performance cameras (M9, Canon 5D, Sony a900, etc.) and I have a G10 that I got for my wife. I think the G10 is a great camera (now long discontinued), but it doesn't have good high-ISO performance (limited to 800 if I recall correctly). That's ultimately a concern, because this will be for handheld photos, mostly without flash, in architectural environs. Sometimes exterior photos at night, as well.


---Michael
 

mjm6

Member
Brad,

I thought of the NEX, but the size is an issue for the office... This camera needs to be easy and convenient to use for non-photographers, unfortunately. Otherwise, I'd line up a more serious camera like a G12 or something (love the manual modes, RAW shooting, etc.), but I'm afraid that will be too much for the average user in the office.

---Michael
 

Oren Grad

Active member
Further to Terry's point, one of the pleasant surprises of the LX5 has been how far I can go under available light even at base ISO, by taking advantage of the fast lens (in the LX5, it's f/2-2.3 at the wide focal lengths I prefer) and the anti-shake. For modest enlargements, the effective depth of field at the ultrashort focal lengths of these lenses is astonishing.

Even if image quality isn't sufficient at, say, ISO 800 or beyond, you may find that ISO 400 plus the fast lens and anti-shake will give you an adequate yield for your purposes.
 

DHart

New member
What you are asking for probably doesn't exist as yet... The xz1 would be an option, but after carefully comparing the xz1 to the LX5, I went with the LX5 for a pocket camera and I am totally thrilled with the camera. One of the primary reasons for my choice is that the LX5 goes to 24mm equivalent on the wide end. I have found that 28mm just isn't wide enough for many images and architectural situations I want to capture.

Often I find the need to go even wider than 28mm, and Panasonic answers the call with their excellent wide angle lens attachment for the LX5, which brings the coverage to 18mm.



My decision was sealed when seeing this thread

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1033&message=37041250
 
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