Need to get a decent compact camera for my wife

Geoffc

Senior Member
My wife has said that she would like a decent compact for her birthday in a couple of weeks. On the plus side this means I haven't got to try and think what she might want, but I'm not sure which camera to get. She currently has a D7100 with everything from a 10.5 fisheye to the Tamron 150-600 and plenty in between, so she is a knowledgeable photographer and expects good image quality. When I looked at this for myself earlier in the year I got the Fuji X100T as it's APSC, but also a fixed lens.

This one needs a zoom as my wife didn't like the fixed lens on the Fuji as it's restrictive in her view. Obviously this will mean going to a smaller sensor or it won't be a compact. So my question is, what compact would provide great image quality, at least a 24-70 equivalent lens, RAW format, viewfinder (EVF or optical) and manual controls. So far I have landed on the Lumix LX100 (4/3 sensor) and the RX100 III (1 Inch sensor). The RX100 pretty much fits the requirement but it's not cheap at around £570 in the UK. I would pay that if it is necessary but wonder if there is something else that gets very close for a few hundred ££ less.

I would consider smaller sensors if I was advised that I could still get reasonable ISO performance in lower light.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Love my a6000 and its low light performance is as good as the D7100, maybe a touch better. The 16-50mm kit lens is plenty sharp. Drawback is that most other lenses for it turn the compact camera into Pinocchio - but you can get adapters to put your Nikon glass on, if that matters.
 

Geoffc

Senior Member
I need to speak to the boss. Is the A6000 with 16-50 attached a lot smaller than a D7100 with a Sigma 17-50 attached? I guess physics means the lenses must be a similar size.


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Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I need to speak to the boss. Is the A6000 with 16-50 attached a lot smaller than a D7100 with a Sigma 17-50 attached? I guess physics means the lenses must be a similar size.
Well it's hard to define "a lot smaller" but here are the numbers...

A6000: 4.7 x 2.6 x 1.8 inches. Weight (with battery and kit lens), is 16.5 oz. So kitted-out, the A6000 is creeping up on one-and-a-half pounds.

D7100: 5.3 x 4.2 x 3.0 inches. Weight (with battery inserted, but no lens attached), is 1lb 11.0 oz (let's call that 1.75 pounds for easy math). The Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 weighs in at 1.25 pounds. Add them up and you're looking at an even three pounds for the kitted-out D7100.

Hope that helps...
.....
 

Geoffc

Senior Member
Well it's hard to define "a lot smaller" but here are the numbers...

A6000: 4.7 x 2.6 x 1.8 inches. Weight (with battery and kit lens), is 16.5 oz. So kitted-out, the A6000 is creeping up on one-and-a-half pounds.

D7100: 5.3 x 4.2 x 3.0 inches. Weight (with battery inserted, but no lens attached), is 1lb 11.0 oz (let's call that 1.75 pounds for easy math). The Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 weighs in at 1.25 pounds. Add them up and you're looking at an even three pounds for the kitted-out D7100.

Hope that helps...
.....

Thanks for the feedback Paul, however I think my wife has now made her decision, which is the RX100 III. This weighs about 0.5 pounds albeit she is happy walking around with the D7100 and Tamron 150-600, so that is not a huge factor. Having weighed everything up I think it's the right decision, albeit the A6000 did have some advantages life the autofocus performance. It's funny that if you have a set of criteria there are not that many options available and each time I reviewed what I wanted vs. what's available I ended up back at the same point, albeit each option had compromises. Time will tell if it was the right decision.
 

Wolfeye

Senior Member
Compact means different things to different people. For me, my Canon G15 is "compact" but my Fujifilm X-Pro1 was not. I have never been let down by the G15's image quality. The G16 adds a few more bells and whistles.
 

Geoffc

Senior Member
My wife is now the proud owner of an RX100 iii. It's tiny but packed with functionality. My Fuji X100T might be at risk if the RX100 takes great images as it seems very easy to access the functions and it's truly pocketable.


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