What compact camera up to £250

[Stevemr]

So, as the title asks really, which compact cameras should I be looking at for £200 - £250?
At the moment I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-W320 that must be about 5-6 yars old, its not bad, but I would like something a bit better.
Use would be holiday landscape pics, but alos some motorsport?

Any suggestions?

[Fordo]

if you fancy sticking with sony, you could do worse than a Sony RX100 mark i or mark ii

They have a larger 1" sensor, bigger than most compacts, which comes in very useful for low light stuff indoors and at night. I had the mark 4, and it was a cracking camera. Each mark, adds more features - but the mark i and ii should still be solid cameras

[damianmkv]

The rx100 is a great ( very ) little camera, you can get away with high ISO and the detail it captures is amazing. You can also buy a filter adapter for just over £20 if long(er) exposures are you thing.

Mine did a better job of the Milky Way than my e-m1

[rich888]

Stevemr said:

So, as the title asks really, which compact cameras should I be looking at for £200 - £250?
At the moment I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-W320 that must be about 5-6 yars old, its not bad, but I would like something a bit better.
Use would be holiday landscape pics, but alos some motorsport?

Any suggestions?

Within your price range I would highly recommend the Sony RX100 MK1 which will provide you with vastly superior quality photographs compared to the 320. I didn't realise just how good it was until it broke and I briefly replaced it with a Sony DSC-WX500 which was shockingly poor in comparison especially in low light conditions. I now have a Sony RX100 MK3 which is better but it does cost more money - for your budget the MK1 is perfect.

Canon and Panasonic now produce similar spec compact cameras with 1" sensors so it might be worthwhile seeing what they have to offer. I did actually do a fair bit of research before deciding upon the Sony though it was a very close call between them.

In terms of where to buy from, John Lewis seem to be quite keen with their prices and offer 3 year extended warranties, which in my case was rather fortunate. Highly recommended.

Edited to add: Here's a comparison chart for the current range of Sony RX100 compact cameras: https://photographylife.com/sony-rx100-series-comp...

Edited by rich888 on Friday 17th March 23:52

[GetCarter]

What they said.

[Willy Nilly]

Pretty disappointed with my R100, it's ok, but not worth twice what my Canon Ixu 75. I was supposed to get cash back from Sony, which they never honoured, then when it broke they wouldn't fix it. Won't buy another.

[GetCarter]

Willy Nilly said:

Pretty disappointed with my R100, it's ok, but not worth twice what my Canon Ixu 75. I was supposed to get cash back from Sony, which they never honoured, then when it broke they wouldn't fix it. Won't buy another.

What did you find wrong with the RX100?

[Willy Nilly]

GetCarter said:

Willy Nilly said:

Pretty disappointed with my R100, it's ok, but not worth twice what my Canon Ixu 75. I was supposed to get cash back from Sony, which they never honoured, then when it broke they wouldn't fix it. Won't buy another.

What did you find wrong with the RX100?

The zoom mechanism failed, for what ever reason. Cost me about 70 quid to fix. The only contribution I got off Sony was the 50 quid cash back they never paid me in the first place and that was after a quite a lot of emails that got increasingly shirty.

The camera has no battery charge level indicator that I can find. It will also turn on by accident in its case. Occasionally it says the SD card is full so I have to take out the card and battery and start again, which is great for catching the moment and quite often the pictures aren't particularly sharp. I've always liked Sony products, but won't be rushing to buy another any time soon.

[GetCarter]

Willy Nilly said:

GetCarter said:

Willy Nilly said:

Pretty disappointed with my R100, it's ok, but not worth twice what my Canon Ixu 75. I was supposed to get cash back from Sony, which they never honoured, then when it broke they wouldn't fix it. Won't buy another.

What did you find wrong with the RX100?

The zoom mechanism failed, for what ever reason. Cost me about 70 quid to fix. The only contribution I got off Sony was the 50 quid cash back they never paid me in the first place and that was after a quite a lot of emails that got increasingly shirty.

The camera has no battery charge level indicator that I can find. It will also turn on by accident in its case. Occasionally it says the SD card is full so I have to take out the card and battery and start again, which is great for catching the moment and quite often the pictures aren't particularly sharp. I've always liked Sony products, but won't be rushing to buy another any time soon.

I have two of them and haven't had any of those problems. Think you must have got a dud. They do happen.

[Willy Nilly]

GetCarter said:

Willy Nilly said:

GetCarter said:

Willy Nilly said:

Pretty disappointed with my R100, it's ok, but not worth twice what my Canon Ixu 75. I was supposed to get cash back from Sony, which they never honoured, then when it broke they wouldn't fix it. Won't buy another.

What did you find wrong with the RX100?

The zoom mechanism failed, for what ever reason. Cost me about 70 quid to fix. The only contribution I got off Sony was the 50 quid cash back they never paid me in the first place and that was after a quite a lot of emails that got increasingly shirty.

The camera has no battery charge level indicator that I can find. It will also turn on by accident in its case. Occasionally it says the SD card is full so I have to take out the card and battery and start again, which is great for catching the moment and quite often the pictures aren't particularly sharp. I've always liked Sony products, but won't be rushing to buy another any time soon.

I have two of them and haven't had any of those problems. Think you must have got a dud. They do happen.

I did tell Sony that it wasn't just the zoom issue I had problems with and they weren't interested. The little Ixus was a much better camera, well, it worked properly anyway.

[Stevemr]

Thanks for all the feedback sounds like the Sony is the one to go for, and hopefully I do not get a duff one!

Added bonus is sister in law works for John Lewis, so can get 12.5% discount.

[Not Ideal]

+1 on the RX100. I have a Mk1 and love it - is perfect for my needs.

[Mammasaid]

Bought FIL one of these for Xmas, can honestly say I'm very impressed;

http://www.trustedreviews.com/panasonic-lumix-tz70...

Picture taken with full auto and full zoom.

[Derek Smith]

Mammasaid said:

Bought FIL one of these for Xmas, can honestly say I'm very impressed;

http://www.trustedreviews.com/panasonic-lumix-tz70...

Picture taken with full auto and full zoom.

I've got a Lumix TZ. Given the price I can think of nothing to criticise. It does a lot of stuff very well, and what it doesn't, it does exceptionally well.

Nice, solid case as well.

[Stevemr]

OK thats thrown some confusion in, the Lumix seems to have a huge optical zoom, and is slightly cheaper as well, so is the image quality better with the Sony?
That picture of the moon is amazing!

[GetCarter]

Stevemr said:

OK thats thrown some confusion in, the Lumix seems to have a huge optical zoom, and is slightly cheaper as well, so is the image quality better with the Sony?
That picture of the moon is amazing!

The RX100 sensor is 4 times the size and 20.2 mp... hence it gets much more detail into the images. Depends what you want really. Lumix is a great camera, but will struggle to print larger images. Fine for web mind.

[Mammasaid]

GetCarter said:

The RX100 sensor is 4 times the size and 20.2 mp... hence it gets much more detail into the images. Depends what you want really. Lumix is a great camera, but will struggle to print larger images. Fine for web mind.

To give you some context, the picture was taken at max size and max zoom, then uploaded to Google Photos, then downloaded to my laptop, then uploaded to Pistonheads, so it's nowhere near original quality.

THe Panasonic has got a 12.3 mp 1 inch sensor, to be honest the average person couldn't tell the difference until the picture was blown up to A1 size or larger. I'm still using a Canon Powershot G5 from 2004, and don't see any need to upgrade for day to day purposes.

[GetCarter]

Mammasaid said:

To give you some context, the picture was taken at max size and max zoom, then uploaded to Google Photos, then downloaded to my laptop, then uploaded to Pistonheads, so it's nowhere near original quality.

THe Panasonic has got a 12.3 mp 1 inch sensor, to be honest the average person couldn't tell the difference until the picture was blown up to A1 size or larger. I'm still using a Canon Powershot G5 from 2004, and don't see any need to upgrade for day to day purposes.

Not sure if I'm talking about the wrong camera... but the lumix TZ70 has a 1/2.3" (6.17 x 4.55 mm) sensor, less than 1/4 the size of the RX100. A1 would be a distant dream with a sensor that small (at anything like decent dpi).

..and as for cropping an image....

..but if you are talking about a different camera - or if there is a later version, my bad.

Edited by GetCarter on Sunday 26th March 18:02

[LuS1fer]

I have a Panasonic TZ30 (20 x) and a Canon SX700HS (30 x).
Both do a good job but the longer the zoom, the more fishbowl the photos tend to be ie the subject develops a curve.
The Panasonic has better mode menus than the Canon but if I was going to buy a new camera now, I would spend more and get a 1" sensor.