Fixed or Zoom lens

Fixed or Zoom lens

  • Fixed Lens

    Votes: 115 79.9%
  • Zoom Lens

    Votes: 29 20.1%

  • Total voters
    144
IMHO a zoom P&S is a good second body to a QL17 which provides you with the fast normal lens.

I'll second this opinion.

Personally I like stepped zooms and then I come to idea about wide/tele P&S - there were many of them produced. Maybe Ricoh TF-500/900. Choose either setting and be there.
 
wide/tele P&S

Olympus AF-1 Twin

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35/3.5 and 70/5.6 in one body

Bought one recently, but didn't have time to try it yet.
 
Zoom lenses are for movie cameras only, and even then used very sparingly.

A zoom will always be inferior to a fixed focal length lens.

Having said that, I do like my Zuiko 28-48mm wide zoom on my Olympus OM2 every once in a while.
 
How about the Olympus Stylus Epic with 35mm f2.8 fixed lens ? I bought the Mju II (the equivalent UK model) for a rediculously cheap price and it is a little pocket gem..
 
Fixed could have more rapid action - but very few p-n-s with primes (even less, if we consider the otherwise desirable ones) ever had a solid lens, and once motor extension, AF etc. are the limiting factor alike, that advantage gets lost. Optically, modern, modest range zooms usually are no worse than primes (my mju V is as good as my mju II, and both are in the same quality range as decent 80's vintage SLR/RF primes, as long as we disregard distortion), so it is a matter of taste whether you'd rather have a bit of zoom or one or two stops more speed.

Sevo
 
I like Fuji Zoom Date F2.8 (I like shorter Japanese name better - Silvi). Switched on, it stays on 24mm setting, and has Quick Shot mode - single button switches camera on and puts AF to fixed distance, working for most shots (it's at wide lens setting, too, so this works). This camera has cleared my prejudice to zoom P&S's.

Took this shot in QS mode - saw them in very last moment as until this I were busy with daugter, something telling her. Once I saw policemen approaching - and they weren't too slow - pushed button, framed and then pressed release. VF is small, in fact I could frame better - had time yet.
 

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Hi,

How about the Leica C3? It's a pure P&S with no over-rides but centre weighted metering and ASPH bits in the lens. The lens is, of course, brilliant.

The lens is 28 - 80 mm but not in steps of (say) 1 mm. Instead it goes from 28 to 80 is several steps. So not so many compromises in the design (well, imo). It goes from from 28 to 42 (nice one) to 50 to 60 to 70 to 80mm. Wide open it's F/3.6 and at the 80mm end only f/7.9 but that's wide for a P&S's zoom at the tele end.

Just my 2d worth.

Regards, David
 
In the context of the original post, I would certainly choose a zoom. And if I did choose a fixed focal length compact, considering the 40mm lens on the QL17, I would opt for one with a 28mm lens, those with 35 or 38mm lenses would seem redundant.

Of the cameras that I currently own, I would choose either the 28~70mm Konica Lexio if compactness was very important, or the 28~90mm Rollei Prego 90 if versatility was more of an issue. If image quality was most important, and compactness was irrelevant, then it would be either the (original) Pentax IQ Zoom, the huge Canon Sure Shot Zoom XL, or the Samsung ECX-2, all of which are probably larger than the Canonet, but all have lenses which rival those found on SLR cameras.
 
If you have a nice fast fixed lens camera, a zoom would make sense as a companion. Unless, of course, you can find another prime lens compact with a sufficiently different focal length.

I, too, was tossing up between a Natura Classica zoom and a Natura Black. I found the Natura Black photos to be more striking and distinctive, and my other film compact was the Contax T3, which made the combination 24/1.9 and 35/2.8. Super stuff.
 
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