Is it possible to buy a better P&S travel camera

[sleddriver]

Low light, low-noise, and lens-quality separates the men from the boys.

The key to getting what you want, at a price you can afford, is to buy used from a large camera broker like KEH.

 

[Vikas]

Took lots of indoor pictures with iPhone7Plus without flash. They came out lot better than with my older Panasonic camera with the flash. That 1.8 lens on iPhone7+ really gets the light in compared to 3.3 lens of the Panasonic. The 2x portrait more is also quite nice.

It is really shame that big boys like Panasonic, Sony, Nikon etc have conceded the P&S market to smartphone. Technically, there is no reason why they could not deliver better than iPhone performance at $250 price point but that would eat their high priced offerings. But that is a surefire way to become extinct.

There is a tech startup who is coming up with better P&S camera using multiple cheap lenses and software to merge them. Unfortunately, he is too greedy and has priced them at $1600. The venture capitalists funding him must be morons. The cost of materials for that package is under $20. If they were priced at $99-$199, he would take over the entire P&S market but with his proposed pricing he would be road kill.

 

[Quattro Pete]

What model is the Panasonic?

What were the photo settings on each (exposre, aperture, ISO)?

Generalny, shooting with direct flash indoors produces rather harsh results. The subjects in the forefront get over exposed and the background gets under exposed. Either use indirect flash or no flash if possible.

 

[Vikas]

I just purchased mirror-less Sony A6000 with the dual lens package. The lenses are 16-50 and 55-210 I am in process of acquiring the necessary accessory list for it. The learning curve for this camera is quiet steep.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Nice. The A6000 is well regarded. There are likely better lenses out there, but the kit ones should be a good starting point.

 

[KrisZ]

If you don't mind spending the coin, I recommend looking at Leica models.

 

[DeepFriar]

Even though all my stuff is Canon including the good, but not great, Powershot S120 P&S that I keep with me, I would caution that the Canons usually lack in contrast ratio which badly impacts shadow detail. I tend to use fill flash to alleviate that. You might look at tests of the rest of the larger Powershot cameras with large zoom ranges. Many are highly rated but I have no experience with them. Canons are such a large part of the market I just thought I would warn on that aspect of them.

 

[Olas]

It's possible but entirely pointless.

Until you're pushing the limits of ISO or metering or any other aspect of photography and find that your equipment is your liniting factor (very unlikely if you want a P&S), then technique is what you need to address.
Think about lighting and composition, DOF and framing and thirds, and your images will be 10x better than using a more expensive camera to point and shoot without thinking.

When your technique is good and the camera starts to limit you by not doing what you want it to do, then look at a proper camera. Until then, practise practise practise!

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: CT8
P&S cameras are dead.

Possibly. I have a Cannon G7X. Better than the best phone camera and obviously not as good as an SLR. Its a good compromise.

 

[surfstar]

Good choice - I know seeing this got me interested in the A6000:

 

[DeepFriar]

Originally Posted By: Al
Originally Posted By: CT8
P&S cameras are dead.

Possibly. I have a Cannon G7X. Better than the best phone camera and obviously not as good as an SLR. Its a good compromise.


I think the "G" series have 1 inch sensors. With that and real honest glass lenses there is no competition from any phone in anything but snapshots. Physics.

 

[greenjp]

My wife and I just took our first sans-kids vacation since we had our oldest 7.5 years ago. Took my aforementioned Panasonic GX7, a 14-140mm zoom, and a 20mm f1.7 prime lens. Compact, lightweight, and excellent image quality. That's a travel camera. The handful of photos I snapped with my iPhone 5s are simply not as good.

jeff

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: greenjp
My wife and I just took our first sans-kids vacation since we had our oldest 7.5 years ago. Took my aforementioned Panasonic GX7, a 14-140mm zoom, and a 20mm f1.7 prime lens. Compact, lightweight, and excellent image quality. That's a travel camera. The handful of photos I snapped with my iPhone 5s are simply not as good.

jeff

Just fyi, but there has been a big jump in image quality from iPhone 5s to 7.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Just fyi, but there has been a big jump in image quality from iPhone 5s to 7.


Also just an FYI, if you want to print photos taken by, in our case, iPhone 7 Plus, expect a big drop in quality. Photos that looked quite stunning on the screen, looked really bad once printed. On some of them you could actually see the post processing artifacts, many, many of them.
It seems these cameras were set up for digital consumption only.

 

[greenjp]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

Just fyi, but there has been a big jump in image quality from iPhone 5s to 7.

I'm sure there's been some improvement, but regardless an iPhone 7 has a 17.3 mm^2 sensor and a micro four thirds camera is 225 mm^2. APS DSLRs are in the 370 range. There's no getting past that.

And KrisZ's point about the viewing medium is spot on - the high quality screen on the phone makes the best of the images being viewed. I use a shot from my old Panasonic G3 as the background on my 5s and it looks great, better than it does on my 1080p laptop monitor. And I've done little 5x7 prints from my phone and they stink compared to what the camera produces.

jeff

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: greenjp
My wife and I just took our first sans-kids vacation since we had our oldest 7.5 years ago. Took my aforementioned Panasonic GX7, a 14-140mm zoom, and a 20mm f1.7 prime lens. Compact, lightweight, and excellent image quality. That's a travel camera. The handful of photos I snapped with my iPhone 5s are simply not as good.

jeff

Just fyi, but there has been a big jump in image quality from iPhone 5s to 7.
Maybe...but still not even close to a dedicated camera with a large sensor & excellent glass.

I recently pulled out my old F100, loaded with ASA400 (would have pref'd slower) and shot a roll of a neighbors family. They were stunned by the details! Could easily pick out 'peach-fuzz' on the kids faces! They were so used to 'phone-shots' with that weird skewed perspective and 'selfies'.

 

[KitaCam]

My neighbor is going to Africa with no camera other than her phone....could not let her do that, so gave her a PnS camera with a 10x zoom and optical stabilization...it's those long shots where phones fall short...and the zoom should help get those shots of wildlife before the wildlife gets her.
Gave her 10x binoculars too.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: greenjp
My wife and I just took our first sans-kids vacation since we had our oldest 7.5 years ago. Took my aforementioned Panasonic GX7, a 14-140mm zoom, and a 20mm f1.7 prime lens. Compact, lightweight, and excellent image quality. That's a travel camera. The handful of photos I snapped with my iPhone 5s are simply not as good.

jeff

Just fyi, but there has been a big jump in image quality from iPhone 5s to 7.
Maybe...but still not even close to a dedicated camera with a large sensor & excellent glass.

Hey, I did not say it was close. Just that they've made big improvements.

I carry a big DSLR myself. But sometimes by the time I get set up with all my gear, the moment has gone and wife has managed to capture it with her phone. It has its place.

 

[greenjp]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Hey, I did not say it was close. Just that they've made big improvements.
I carry a big DSLR myself. But sometimes by the time I get set up with all my gear, the moment has gone and wife has managed to capture it with her phone. It has its place.

Copy that! I use mine all the time for random snaps and note taking, but I would never think of it as a camera for the purpose of taking "important" pictures. Right tool for the job.

jeff

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

Hey, I did not say it was close. Just that they've made big improvements.

I carry a big DSLR myself. But sometimes by the time I get set up with all my gear, the moment has gone and wife has managed to capture it with her phone. It has its place.

OK. No worries. Didn't realize you used something other than an iPhone. Many don't and have no idea.