Cheap but excellent P&S camera?

Many thanks 02, scale focusing is fine with me! I don't know if I'll ever get to it, but it's an inspiration to know it's possible, I've been jealous of those tirplets and whatnot.

:)
 
The Olympus MJU cameras cost nothing and produce wonderful results. You can get a zoom mju for less than 10 buckazoids.
 
My vote goes for the XA. Have the XA and the XA2 and love them both. Also, I know this is going to sound weird but I also have a vivitar series 1 500pz and it takes amazing images as well. You can pick them up for less than $10. I really like it a lot. I know it doesn't have the cool factor, but damn does it work.

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Depends upon your preference. My vote would go to XA family or L35AF. Lots of great ones out there these days at a reasonable price.

B2 (;->
 
Olympus XA is still sensible... but a little more hands on. Unfortunately, this seems to be a category where the good models are very well known and becoming scarcer by the moment. A Contax T3 sold for $1300 in this very forum just a week or two ago! That's crazy.

Hmmm... maybe check out the Ricoh R1 or R1s.
 
Okay, i have the Canon AF35M, The Nikon L35AF and the Ricoh FF-70.
The Canon is the largest and most noisiest of the 3, one point i don't like is that the distance scale indicator thingy in the viewfinder only indicates AFTER you have fully pressed the shutter button and taken the picture, at least with mine that is. Lens is great and plenty sharp, manual flash release good / bad?
Nikon is still larger than Ricoh not as noisy as the other two, Great lens, autofocus pretty good and indication before you fully press the shutter so you have confirmation before you wast a shot. Flash pops up automatically when the light is low.
Ricoh being the smallest out of the three, still noisy, great lens auto flash and a fancy LCD and inbuilt lens cover using filter next to impossible. Distance info before you shoot.

All three have sharp lenses if the shot seems soft that is operator error or the camera is faulty some how.

cheers
 
Hmmm... maybe check out the Ricoh R1 or R1s.[/QUOTE]

Got the R1 in our shop currently with a £99 price tag. Prices on most 'decent' compacts are goin up for sure.
 
Hi,

The main advantage of the Olympus XA's and their family is that there are specialist repairers out there and so a typical one bought second-hand can be restored to the original spec. apart from the looks...

BTW, all the cameras mentioned have been fitted with primes, there's a few small ones with zooms I'd add but chances of finding a good one are low. One or two of them are fairly young; Nikon One Touch Zoom 90S and Olympus µ-V come to mind as fairly recent. Older ones include the Pentax ESPIO 928M and Konica and Minolta also made some seriously good ones.

Regards, David
 
Yeah, I'd agree about ditching autofocus and get an XA2. No motor wind screeching or slow auto focus, and the 3 zone focus system works fine for point and shoot photography. And cheap!
 
Minolta Himatic AF2 - has worked for me as a briefcase stuffer when traveling for work. Somebody gave it to me because they know I like film cameras, so I can't comment on the cost.
 
This thread got me going through my negatives and scan a few frames taken with some P&S cameras i had (at 4800dpi). Here is what i noticed.

* On the top of the chain, there is the Fuji DL supermini - the pictures rival easily the best 28 mm lens i had, the Zuiko 28 f/2.8 - beautiful performance but rather expensive and difficult to come across.

* Then there are cameras like the Yashica T4/T5 and the Nikon L35AF, very close call to say which one produces finer details - sometimes it was the Nikon sometimes it was the Yashica - I have a comparison test here. Problem is that i had to go through a few yashicas as some of them suffered with inconsistent focusing.

* I will put the Konica's A4 or Big Mini, Olympus Epic / Olympus stylus, pentax espio mini and Nikon AF600 in the third scale in terms of how much detail i notice in the pictures -the Stylus epic does a bit better than the rest. All very contrasty lenses, people will be satisfied with them.

And a couple of other random things i noticed - the pictures i got from a Ricoh 500G easily sit between the Yashica T4 and the little Fuji, made me regret selling it. Also, i was underwhelmed by the performance of the Takumar 35 f/2, not much better than the Olympuses (if any at all actually) and no match for the Yashica/Nikon L35AF.

Edit: Also underwhelmed by the Oly XA2 optical performance. A lot of vignetting and detail-wise it wasn't great either. The Stylus/Epic are better...

Just my 2c
 
i like the autofocus but manual advance p&s cameras of the late 70s to early 80s. the autofocus is silent, and the film advance is more discrete (though crinkly). nice lenses that vignette in a good way. the built-in flash gets you that classic "family photo" look. afaik, they're basically all the same.

konica c35af and c35a2, konica af3
minolta hi-matic af2
yashica auto focus and auto focus s
mamiya 135 af
rollei rolleimat af
flash fujica
 
I'd go for the Olympus Stylus. 35mm f/3.5 works well in most conditions. I think I'll eventually upgrade, but I'm digging it for now.
 
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