Urgent(ish) "Which Compact" thread... By Friday.

[Dibble]

Hello all.

I'm off on a motorbike trip on Friday for 16 days and I'm considering getting a compact camera...

Ideally sub £100, with GPS tagging, SD card. Water resistance would be a bonus.

Other than that, I'm not bothered. Any recommendations?





The trip is Rotterdam - Malmo - Stockholm - Turku - Rovaniemi - Umea -Ostersund - Copenhagen (with a few others stops as well).

[MysteryLemon]

Don't think you'll find GPS for under £100. You'll probably get WiFi at the top end of the budget though.

There won't be that much between the cameras at this price point so just buy what best suits your requirements.

I've always been fond of Panasonic lumix cmpacts so would suggest the best of those you cab afford.

Edited by MysteryLemon on Monday 23 June 08:17

[y2blade]

Go for either a Canon or Nikon, you won't go far wrong.

Sorry van't be more specific, I'm not up to speed on Compacts at the moment.
I'm sure someone else will be able to point you to some specific models that suit your needs.

Have a great trip, I look forward to some pics

[DavidY]

If you want a quality compact at a bargain price then I would go for the Fuji XF1, small, very pocktable, great image quality and on £125 special offer at PC World/Currys (It was a £350 camera when launched)

[Mr Will]

DavidY said:

If you want a quality compact at a bargain price then I would go for the Fuji XF1, small, very pocktable, great image quality and on £125 special offer at PC World/Currys (It was a £350 camera when launched)

Correct answer. I don't know anything that can touch the XF1 at it's current price.

[MysteryLemon]

Mr Will said:

Correct answer. I don't know anything that can touch the XF1 at it's current price.

I agree, at that price, that's the one I would buy, but I wouldn't pay any more for it.

[Dibble]

Thanks for the replies so far. I've seen a white boxed Lumix TZ30 on Amazon (and sold by Amazon) for £130 so I'm considering that just now.

Can someone explain what the Wifi cameras do? It's not immediately obvious to me. I assume they somehow "ping" to a smartphone for a GOS fix - bit does this require data roaming on the phone (and the associated costs)?

And y2blade, don't worry, I'll be posting a trip thread in BB. And in the unlikely event I get decent photos I'll post some here too!

[Mr Will]

WiFi (normally) just means that you can send the images to your phone for facebook etc.

There are lots of apps that can GPS tag photos from cameras that don't have GPS but the all rely on setting the app running BEFORE you start taking photos, so can be a bit of a pain in the backside. It's not camera specific though. I can use my cycle computer plus lightroom to add location data to the photos taken on my 5D (if I can be bothered).

[Dibble]

Cheers Mr Will. Sounds like a bit of a faff on WiFi. Still thinking on the Lumix.

[Mr Will]

Dibble said:

Cheers Mr Will. Sounds like a bit of a faff on WiFi. Still thinking on the Lumix.

WiFi and GPS are two different things, don't muddle the two together. GPS tagging afterwards is another one entirely as well.

WiFi is extremely helpful (for me at least) - you can email photos back home, post them on facebook for friends to see, all that kind of thing without needing a computer.

GPS is less so. I don't really need to know to within 10ft where my pictures were taken. "Stockholm city centre" would be close enough for me.

Why the Lumix rather than the Fuji btw?

[Dibble]

The Lumix has gps whereas the Fuji doesn't seem to. Read some good reviews on the Lumix today and I know they're reasonably thought of by many who post in here.

I may not bother, save myself £125 and just use my old iPhone 4 as my camera. My iPhone 5 is SatNav and music on the go.

[Simpo Two]

The Samsung ST150 has WiFi for £55.90: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-ST150F-Camera-Buil...

[Mr Will]

Dibble said:

The Lumix has gps whereas the Fuji doesn't seem to. Read some good reviews on the Lumix today and I know they're reasonably thought of by many who post in here.

I may not bother, save myself £125 and just use my old iPhone 4 as my camera. My iPhone 5 is SatNav and music on the go.

Fair enough. There is certainly nothing wrong with the Lumix, just a case of different priorities I guess!

Any reason not to just use the iPhone 5 for everything? They have a respectable enough camera and I doubt it would be a major battery drain compared to SatNav usage.

[Dibble]

Mr Will said:

Fair enough. There is certainly nothing wrong with the Lumix, just a case of different priorities I guess!

Any reason not to just use the iPhone 5 for everything? They have a respectable enough camera and I doubt it would be a major battery drain compared to SatNav usage.

Sorry for the delay replying!

Ordered the Lumix as the iPhone 4 has a knackered power button which is just an extra bit of faff. It's also not that great of a camera.

The iPhone 5 is my SatNav/music, which while I'm riding is in a clipped down case, plugged in. It's not much faff when stopped to unclip, unplug, take photo, replug, reclip, reconnect to the Bluetooth... Except it quickly becomes a faff, so I didn't take as many photos as I'd like last year.

Compact round neck on lanyard is a lot less faff, and the GPS tagging means I can plot exactly where the photo was taken - handy for good roads/trails/bars...

I do have a DSLR (Nikon D50, but space/weight is a bit of an issue. If I was in the car, I'd just chuck the camera bag in the boot. On the bike, the camera bag would take 1/2 available luggage space, so it's not really viable.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. If I do manage any decent photos, I'll post them up when I get back.