David - as a discerning man with an eye for good image quality and bang for your buck, what digital compact do you carry, if you don't mind me asking? Or, if you don't but were forced to choose, what would it be and why?

I have been through a succession of them and always find them very disappointing compared to a DSLR - Canon G9, Pannie LX3, Fuju f31fd...

If you're after image quality, why not one if these new micro four thirds?

If it's portability: We got a Sony T900 for the wife, she now carries it with her. Recently did some prints (4x6 / 10cm x 15cm) and they look ok, if you just want some holiday snaps. If you want to create art, stay away!

Well, I had a play with a Panasonic GF1 in my local camera store with the standard kit lens. The body is pocketable, just, but not at all with that lens on. It isn't all that smaller than a KM 5D DSLR to be honest. It only makes sense, from my point of view, with the 20mm 'pancake' lens, which admittedly, is very nice, but I like the flexibility of zoom lenses, even short ones. A fixed lens on a 'compact' camera is just too limiting for me.

A Nikon D5000 I don't currently carry a compact, only a Konica Minolta Dimage A2 which is not much smaller than a DSLR. If I was buying right now, it would be a the new Fuji EXF thingy, a Panasonic LX2 or a Canon G-whatever with raw capability.

David

David,
Give a try to the Panasonic GF1 -it is the closest thing to your beloved Minolta CLE that we can find today. And it does HD 720p. And, with an adapter, you can fit MC/MD or alpha lenses on it...

I hope Sony's coming with something like this very soon, otherwise I won't wait anymore and just buy it!

I have tried the Olympus DP-1 - not that keen. I may try a Panasonic some time in future, but not in winter

David

So is the Nex3 the closest thing to a good compact?

I think it is better than a good compact. Next month we'll know better

I know what you meant, but art can be created with just about anything. People use the Holga, Diana, digicams, camera phones, etc. They may not be great for stock photography, but for art, sure!

Maybe I will start a thread where people can share photos they like that were taken with low-brow small-sensor digicams/phone cameras.

For what it's worth, I came to the Alpha range from a Canon Powershot A560. What I love about the Canon is that you can load a hacked firmware onto the SD card, and selectively load it when the camera starts - this gives the camera the capability to shoot RAW, control exposure, shutter speed, aperture, and a whole range of other features I never understood.

RAW on a point of shoot costing £70 was amazing. And that fact that the hacked firmware remained completely separate from the main firmware was even more amazing.

I never liked the Sony point and shoot cameras - the menus always seemed a little unusual.

ken

My last compact was a Konica Minolta G600 - that camera also had a hack for raw, but that was not why I used it. The A550 is my 'compact' I guess at the moment. I think the Samsung models with raw and 24mm and very fast lenses look interestng, but the raw is not supported by anyone - not even Adobe. It is called sRW format. The cameras look very workmanlike and designed for the Leica-like market.

I think the quick and easy answer is the NEX-5 in due course. We tend to forget that 16mm on 14 megapixels with slightly soft corners is more or less 17mm on 4/3rds if cropped to 12 megapixels, and in practice you can come down to 6 or 8 megapixels crop ('dfigital zoom'). It's a bit like the Hasselblad SWC. people used to say 'why do you just shoot with an ultrawide?' and they did not realise the 6 x 6cm frame could be cropped down to be a 35mm, for which 38mm is a very neat general purpose lens. Or smaller, or a larger crop.

But, I'm a long-term serial abuser of wide angle cameras. My daily companions have included the Brooks Veriwide (47mm on 6 x 9cm), the Plaubel Makina 55 (55mm f/4.5 Nikkor on 6 x 7cm), and the Fujia GW645 (45mm f/4 on 6 x 4.5) as well as the SWC. In 35mm, I converted a 1960s 21mm f/4.5 Rokkor to fit a Leica CL (the rear mount of the lens had to be ground off close to the glass) and later on used a Russar 20mm f/5.6 on a Minolta CLE.

So the NEX-5 with 16mm will just be like coming home.

David

OP here - interesting to see this thread resurrected !

My own search for a decent compact has led me down the path of the Canon G series (which I liked, but found to be blighted by dust inside the lens issues), and to finally arrive at the conclusion that the Panasonic LX3 with its 24mm wide end and good raw was the one for me. It's far more compact than a NEX + lens would be. I know it won't compete with a NEX in terms of medium to high ISO performance. I have to say the NEX body does look a bit out of proportion to the size of the lenses, especially if you wanted to use the adapter and put A mount lenses on it.

Actually, I have also joined the micro four thirds club, with a Panasonic G1. It's a good camera and noticeably smaller and lighter than the a700 with a decent lens on it. Results are pretty good too. Again, the NEX high ISO looks better, but the G! with its micro four thirds lenses seems well balanced, and I'm not sure the NEX looks or feels that way (but I haven't held one so can only postulate).

p.s. - as an aside, is it just me or does the NEX in silver with a silver lens slightly remind anyone else of Minolta's 'space camera' that was designed for use by NASA astronauts?!

I went to EVIL system to save size and weight, but for me is clear with EVIL system (APS-C) will be impossible get a small size camera/lens with regular fast zoom. My EVIL camera start to work from now with prime and kit lenses.
I was trying different advanced compact cameras, the only and right way to get fast lenses and standard zoom. The Samsung EX1/TL500 liked a lot.
The manual control, swivel AMOLED and very fast standard zoom (24-73mm f/1.8-2.4) got my attention.

I think EVIL/Advanced P&S will be a niche complemented each to other.

I had the Nex5 thing for sometime and found it too large for my pocket. Currently having a WX1...and sincerely waiting for an S95 equivalent, maybe Fuji FX10 in my pocket

My brother uses a Powershot S95 as his "sidearm", and from the feel of it I can tell why he gave it that name. It feels very good, is very satisfying to use, and is more portable and rugged than my little TX7. Some of the features are very tempting, like its focus modes and the multi-function ring around the lens. If the "S" family of Powershot cameras could do sweep panoramas like my Cyber-Shot, I'd be looking at an S100, myself. As it is, the HX9V looks like my pick.

Lately I figured out a setting in my monitor (which I've had WAY too long to only just now discover it), which had been goofing with my pictures and processing as if I couldn't trust the camera output, and then when I viewed my pictures on other computers I'd always be puzzled by the wacky temperatures and weak contrast. Now that my monitor is functioning properly, I am trusting Sony's AWB and JPG output very much indeed. I could certainly live with a JPG-only camera like the HX9.