I miss my T4, looking for a new compact

David Hughes said:
Hi,

The zooms are nice but summer time (or sunny days) only as the tele ends get down to f/8-ish wide open - depending on how far they zoom.

The one you want is the plain mju-II or mju-I which are even cheaper (say a pound or so).

There are others as nice Ricoh R1, Konica A4, Pentax ESPIO mini, all the Leica/Minolta/Panasonic minis and Olympus XA, XA2, XA3 etc.

Finding one in good condition is important. Bitter experience tells me that only the Olympus XA etc are repairable simply because cult status means specialists repairing them.

Regards, David

PS I miss my old Contax Tix which was an APS camera (sigh).
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I must admit that when I read you name so many camera's I start to doubt their quality level. It seems impossible that all of them deliver the same sharpness... or am I wrong?
 
I don't like my T4 that much. The Olympus Mju-II is much nicer in my opinion. However, my favourite cheap P&S is the Konica Big Mini. The close-up focus is great and I really like the finder. It's not very clear but it's big and has low distortion. Besides, you can dial in exposure compensation on this camera which is really useful at times.
 
David Hughes said:
PS I miss my old Contax Tix which was an APS camera (sigh).
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If you reallllllly miss the Tix David I have two, great camera. A little titanium beauty with a cracker or a lens.

To the OP's search...lots of good suggestions here. A nice cheapie, if you want a zoom is a T4 zoom.

Have you thought about an Olympus XA or XA2? Depending on whether you want to focus or not one or the other might work for you.

On the pricier side the Nikon 28ti has great IQ an the Contax T3 still resides in my bag, great camera.

Kent
 
I actually want an autofocus P&S with a pretty decent flash... because I'm keen on making Jurgen Teller type of pictures.

Yes I know he uses a G2, but like Terry used the T4, this should all be doable with a bargain P&S too.. or look at it as an experiment ;)
 
It is true, the Olympus mju-II puts out pictures of high quality. Compared to its predecessor ( a good camera in its own right) the shutter lag is noticeably reduced.

Greetings, Ljós
 
jaimiepeeters said:
I must admit that when I read you name so many camera's I start to doubt their quality level. It seems impossible that all of them deliver the same sharpness... or am I wrong?
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What surprises me is that so many people think that there are only a select few that have "special" lenses, and are capable of more than just blurry snapshots. It is as if there is a perception that the camera manufacturers somehow gave up on creating quality optics on small consumer cameras with the demise of the fixed-lens rangefinder. Look at the names behind these cameras. Olympus. Pentax. Canon. Nikon. Rollei. Leica. Fuji. Ricoh. Minolta. Contax. Yashica. Konica. Why would we think that they would be shoveling crap and offal to their largest market? These consumer cameras were the bread-and-butter cameras for their time, and most of them were not exactly inexpensive when they were new. So of course most of them have fine, sharp optics, and are capable of superb results when used correctly. Yes, they were most often used as "snapshot" cameras. But so were the fixed-lens rangefinder, scale-focus, and viewfinder cameras of the previous generations.
 
Greyscale said:
What surprises me is that so many people think that there are only a select few that have "special" lenses, and are capable of more than just blurry snapshots. It is as if there is a perception that the camera manufacturers somehow gave up on creating quality optics on small consumer cameras with the demise of the fixed-lens rangefinder. Look at the names behind these cameras. Olympus. Pentax. Canon. Nikon. Rollei. Leica. Fuji. Ricoh. Minolta. Contax. Yashica. Konica. Why would we think that they would be shoveling crap and offal to their largest market? These consumer cameras were the bread-and-butter cameras for their time, and most of them were not exactly inexpensive when they were new. So of course most of them have fine, sharp optics, and are capable of superb results when used correctly. Yes, they were most often used as "snapshot" cameras. But so were the fixed-lens rangefinder, scale-focus, and viewfinder cameras of the previous generations.
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The only 'problem' I have with my relatively modern Mju-II is that it reverts to max aperture a bit too eagerly. Best performance is hence seen in bright light. But still, I simply have seen no camera, ever, that is as fast and foolproof. I have taken shots with it that none of my cameras can match, not the D200, not the NEX-3, not the FM2, not the M2.

Having said that, this is what you can do with Neopan 1600 in it:


Robot car crusher, Lowlands 2008 by Ronald_H, on Flickr
 
I prefer the Pentax Espio Mini (UC-1) to the mju-II or the T4. The Nikon AF600 is equal in image quality but the viewfinder is small and positioned in such a way that I often have a hard time getting my eye to it. The problem with the mju (and all the Oly slider to open P&Ss) is that the lens cover door can easily move just enough to inadvertently disable the camera when holding it to take a pic. Otherwise, images are excellent and operation is quick. I also ran a roll through a Canon MC recently and the results were as good as any P&S I've used but its kinda big with the attached flash. If you don't mind scale focus, the Konica C35 EF3 I recently acquired has one of the sharpest lenses I've ever seen. It's a touch bigger then some of the 90s P&S models but still relatively small with a built in flash. IMO the best value for money, that meets your requirements, is the Nikon Lite Touch AF/AF600—by far. One can be had for about $20 here in the US.
 
Fixed:
Fujifilm DL Supermini
Rollei AFM35
Nikon AF600
Nikon L35AF

Zoom:
Rollei Prego 90
Konica Lexio 70W

Of the above, the Fuji is my fave in the fixed. Sharp and contrasty. The Rollei Prego 90 is my fave zoom. That beast shouldn't be able to take pictures that good being a zoom. Astoundingly good lens on it.
 
muf said:
Fixed:
Fujifilm DL Supermini
Rollei AFM35
Nikon AF600
Nikon L35AF

Zoom:
Rollei Prego 90
Konica Lexio 70W

Of the above, the Fuji is my fave in the fixed. Sharp and contrasty. The Rollei Prego 90 is my fave zoom. That beast shouldn't be able to take pictures that good being a zoom. Astoundingly good lens on it.
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It says zoom on the Nikon AF600 that I found online....?
 
That would be the Lite Touch zoom. The one that has been referred to in this thread is the 28mm fixed-focal-length version.
 
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