Need film P&S with good short telephoto lens

sleepyhead

sleepyhead

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Hi everyone

In a couple of months I'll be taking a trip in which I need to travel extremely light in terms of photo gear.

I currently have a Fuji Natura Black with 24mm lens, and a Contax T3 with 35mm lens (both excellent cameras with excellent lenses) - I will be taking those two.

In addition, I would like to bring a third compact camera, one with a modest zoom lens out to about 90mm. Perhaps something like 38mm to 90mm would be ideal.

My requirements are:
* Must be a truly pocketable camera
* High quality lens which gives good results

Nice to haves would be:
* Quiet
* Flash can be permanantly shut off

Can you recommend a suitable camera to me?

THANKS!
 
How about an Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80 (at least I think that's what it's called) -- I have one and it has been surprisingly good.
 
I'm also very interested in this thread - I've been on the lookout for a good, small compact 35mm point & shoot to replace / supplement my XA2 - my eye is on a Contax T2 or a Minolta TC-1 but I'm curious about whether one exists with a decent zoom.
 
Thanks for your answers so far. I like the idea of the Olympus, having had the stylus epic II (mju II) before, but I'm somewhat concerned about the durability of the Olympus epic point&shoots. I had problems with every one I owned after not so long time, and eventually gave up on them.
 
How about a Canon S90? 28-105. Really pocketable, full manual control, RAW. Basically a smaller version of the G11 (same sensor), without the pivot screen and the viewfinder. I really like the ergonomics of this little camera, comes closest to normal manual controls I have ever experienced.
 
My mju:V ("METAL Epic" for the US market) was rock solid and never let me down - it only got handed on recently when I picked up a Fuji Silvi (which has a very wide, fast zoom).

Personally I consider zooms with a 80mm top end the limit of practical usefulness in a compact. Compacts with longer lenses suffer abysmally slow lenses at the long end - f/4-9 is fast by their standards, many "mega-zoom compacts" are closer to f/4.5-12. Coupled with a very limited internal flash range, no hot shoe, film speeds firmly restricted by DX to 800 ASA maximum and finder parallax issues making close distance framing at the long end more than just unreliable, these things obviously were designed for sunny summer holiday use only.
 
Konica Lexio 70 with 28-70 lens is OK, while Silvi is simply better in every aspect except price. Well, I like LCD on top of Lexio, that's smarter design than flexible ribbon cable from body to back door.
 
There's dozens , if not hundreds, out there. They're mostly sleeping in charity shops (thrift shops in the USA - I believe) and selling from £1 to £3 and £5 now and then.

There's also the Leica C3 that's little (!) dearer; 28 to 80 and an ASPH lens that's f/7·9 at the far end and f/3·6 at the wide end. Highly recommended but expensive. And the "zoom" goes in steps of 28, 42, 50, 60, 70 & 80mm. A superb camera to use but a pure P&S with only controls for the flash.

In the one pound charity shop group I've all of these and like them all:

Canon Sure Shot 76 Zoom, 38 to 76 f/4·2 to f/7·8 and ASPH lens; it's a sensibly designed camera and was available from 2000 so not so old.

Konica Z-up 110 Super (who thinks up these names) better than the Canon imo. 38 - 110 and f/3·5 to f/9·8 seems to zoom in 6 steps but has an infinity mode and a +1½ stops over-ride; both very, very useful.

There's also the Minolta Riva Zooms 90, 110, 125 etc that go from 38 mm to the given number, also with ASPH lenses. Too many to describe here but very pleasant.

The Olympus µ[mju] III 80, sold until 2004 and was the last of the mju range but (oddly) not sold in Japan. It has spot metering and 11 point AF but I've only just found one and not yet tried it with film.

And the Pentax ESPIO 928 M and it's faster earlier version the plain 928, which I haven't tried, yet. 28 to 90 and f/4·5 to f/11 ish.It has spot AF and - perhaps very important - dioptre adjustment to the eyepiece. And that useful infinity mode for landscapes etc.

And a Nikon Zoom 90S is on the list but I just haven't got the details of it here.

None of them are absolutely perfect, all have a feature you'd wish the others have and I'd not think about getting them overhauled because it would be cheaper to buy a couple and put a film through them.

At present they are all in the collection and, if I just had to keep one, I just don't know which I'd chose. If I wanted to get serious money, then only the Leica would sell. The others appear on ebay and usually end up unsold... Probably the Konica comes close to the C3 in terms of films used.

As for flash control, they all have it but some retain your last setting and most (being P&S's at heart) always switch to the irritating "auto" mode. You have to memorise the symbols, btw.

There's also the Olympus AZ-300 Superzoom, dirt cheap and under rated but not exactly a pocket one but the next best thing to a serious camera in terms of control. And the flash displays "Fill-In" in that mode on the LCD display. Again, dirt cheap.

In your shoes I'd look for what's available and play with them. At today's prices you can't go wrong - which is very sad...

Regards, David
 
Last edited:
Thanks all for your interesting suggestions.

I have owned the Natura Classica, but it felt a bit too light and flimsy for my taste. Image quality was okay, nothing that special.

The Canon S90 digital looks like a step in the right direction, but digital compacts just aren't for me right now. I get great images from my Olympus XA2 that only costs 5 British pounds and gives me the film look (see my Flickr photostream if interested).

I'm leaning right now towards a Contax TVS III to complement my Contax T3, which I think has GREAT image quality and build.

Does anyone have any opinions of the TVS III?

Thanks.
 
meeker said:
How about an Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80 (at least I think that's what it's called) -- I have one and it has been surprisingly good.
Click to expand...

I took advice like this and bought one CHEAP, about $10.

As long as I don't use the flash it's a nice little camera. The flash is turned on by default every time you turn the camera on (it doesn't remember a preference to leave the flash off). Most of the time when I use the flash I get wicked lens flare. I won't use the camera anymore because of this. If I ever get curious about Lomo, I'll use it for that.
 
Have had excellent results with Fuji Discovery....

Have had excellent results with Fuji Discovery....

There are a number of zoom variations in the Fuji Discovery series of cameras. They are plentiful and deliver good results as a result of Fuji's excellent lens quality.

One example is the Discovery 1000 which is 35-80 and has a panorama feature which is simply two blinds that slide in on both sides of the horizontal film frame and viewfinder

Obviously they're used, but plentiful on eBay. For what they sell for, I'd probably get two, although I've never had one break.
 
Rollei made a couple of nice p&s models with decent lenses.

The limitation of most p&s cameras is that most have slow lenses. Most aren't that quiet, because that's just one of the things about those cameras.

I just sold a little Canon Sure Shot Classic 120 that might fit your bill. This is the one that you should look for:
canon-front.jpg


It has a personal mode that lets you switch off the flash.
canon-rear-flap.jpg


When you power up, the flash pops out, even if it's disabled.
canon-poweron.jpg
 
No, I never figured out a way. I tried holding it in, but it interfered with the camera.

However, I think if I really wanted to, I would pull the camera apart and disable the mechanics that allow the flash to pop out. Of course, it would mean no flash at all, but that would be OK, too.
 
The Canon Sure Shot Classic 120 is certainly worth considering. I got mine back in Nov 2008 and have enjoyed shooting with it. The only thing that might be a downside is that the tele end of the zoom has a fairly slow aperture,
38-120mm f/4.5-10.9, however the lens is sharp throughout the zoom range.

Here is an interesting link to the Canon Camera Museum.

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/design/design_room/flash/autoboy_120.html
 
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