The time has come...

[simonankor]

... for me to get a new camera!

yes, this goes back to my thread on cycling and photography. Since then I've got myself a new job as a bike courier so it's time for a small p&s to carry with me while I'm on the job.

At the moment it looks like an Olympus Mju II (Stylus Epic to the yanks in here 😉 )

Needs to be weatherproof, strong, small, with a fast lens. Oh, and cheap. Any suggestions other than the Oly?

 

[Terence T]

I have an Oly Mju II and absolutely hate it. Menus are rather hard to figure, battery life is lousy, and the gold casing is just really tasteless. I only have it because I received it as a prize for coming in 3rd in a photography contest.

Since this is a RF forum, how about the excellent Oly XA? Nice and compact, not much bigger than the Mju II, excellent sharp lens... and cheap!

 

[simonankor]

Good point, I hadn't considered the XA... I'll have to snoop around to see if I can find one in decent condition down here.

Time for a shopping trip!

I'll see if someone will let me play with a Mju II, see if the menus will bother me.
Tell me more about the battery life, Terence?

 

[Nikon Bob]

How about a Yashica T4? The lens is not fast at F3.5 but very sharp, simple menu and battery life is OK at least on ours.

Bob

 

[Terence T]

I get maybe 150 frames (on low res) on 1 battery charge (1/3 with flash). The XD cards used by the Mju II are usually not common to other digicams. I'd rather find something that uses CF or SD.

 

[chug]

I think you need a Rollie 35 S 🙂 f2.8 40mm lens, light meter, tiny and will fit in your pocket or what not and gives SUPER sharp shots. You'll also have fun with scale focus! 😀 Get into it while you can! Or did you want a digital P&S? If so, Nikon have some nice cameras as well as Canon. There are too many little digital P&S's around these days, makes it hard to give advice on them 😉 Check out dpreview 🙂

 

[Rob]

Terrence, he was talking about the Olympus stylus Epic film camera, not digital.

 

[Justin Viiret]

I can also hugely recommend the Canonet QL17 GIII, notwithstanding the non-working nature of mine at the moment. 🙂 Really brilliant, sharp little lens (40mm f/1.7), very usable rangefinder, mechanical shutter, aperture priority autoexposure for fast shooting. You can probably get one in decent nick from the auction site for about A$100.

The same will probably net you a Kiev with 50/2 lens, too, I think... I've been kinda considering one of those, just out of curiosity about the Contax cameras.

jv

 

[Terence T]

Terrence, he was talking about the Olympus stylus Epic film camera, not digital.

Strange, the first post distinctly says Olympus Mju II which is the same digicam I own. I guess Oly badges their film and digital camera under the same name.

 

[Justin Viiret]

Oh, and BTW -- I think Steve at Photoco in the markets here in Adelaide has a couple of Oly XA's lying around, too -- he won't be cheap, but it'll be in good nick and he knows his stuff. 🙂

 

[dmr]

I can also hugely recommend the Canonet QL17 GIII

I have one of these and love it! I also have an Olympus Stylus zoom, which I assume is about the same size as the Stylus Epic that you're talking about.

The GIII is certainly not a point-and-shoot. Although it's auto-exposure, you do have to set the speed and focus, which may be a disadvantage or an advantage depending on how you look at it. It also doesn't have a built-in flash, again, may be what you want or don't want. The GIII is also significantly heavier than the Olympus.

For a "carry everywhere" camera, I would probably choose the Olympus out of these two. 🙂

 

[GeneW]

Believe me, you would never regret getting an Olympus Stylus Epic. The lens is sharper than the XA lens, the camera is smaller, and it's weather proofed. It's a tough little number too -- mine has banged around in my packs and pouches for a couple of years and still works fine. Haven't even changed the battery yet.

Gene

 

[simonankor]

The Mju II (Stylus Epic film p&s, yeah... no digital for me!) is tempting just for the weatherproofing. But thanks for the tip Justin, I'll go have a chat to Steve. I haven't been in there for a while.

The Canonet is too big, as is the Contax. This is a camera to be thrown into my courier bag when I'm out and about working in sun, rain or hail. So it's gotta be really small (Rollei is an option too) and really tough.

 

[ChrisN]

Simon - do you want a trial with an XA? PM your address and I'll send you one and you can send it back when you're done with it.

Chris in Canberra

 

[simonankor]

Hey Chris, thanks for the offer there, but I just found out today a friend of mine has one! He said I could borrow it for a couple of weeks, we'll just see how I go.

PhotoCo has a few XA2s at the moment...