Looking for a good P&S camera

[november]

With a nice Nikon dslr and lenses, i still would like to have a little P&S camera that I can carry in my pocket. Anyone else has that?
Recommendations for a Nikon or Canon camera? (Would you stay with Nikon if you have a DSLR?)

[inkista]

Canon S95 seems to be a value sweet spot that gets recommended a lot. I use a Canon S90 and love it for street shooting and casual snapshots.

I'm not sure if there's a compelling reason to stay with the same brand between P&S and dSLR, other than whether or not your flashes and the P&S hotshoe give you some extra function and an IR remote (and that assumes your P&S camera can use these things. It probably can't if you want it to be pocketable). All the other accessories you could possibly share are ok cross-brand (i.e., cards, tripod, filters, etc.) It's not like a P&S is going to use the same batteries or lenses.

OTOH, all my cameras are Canon.

[JohnT]

I would stay with Nikon but that is just me. I have a older bridge camera Canon S5 IS 58mm and my Canon SLR is 58mm thus I can use filters from one camera to the other holding down costs a bit. Also the layout by each camera manufacturer of the shooting dial is usually similar in appearance and where things are located.
Thus my SLR and P&S have the same icons on the shooting dial.

[Almond.Butterscotch]

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 would be my rec.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...k_Digital.html

[muralikrishna]

You can opt for any Canon P&S , i have Canon powershot 550 and it's fantanstic .. Ofcourse i do stay with my NIkon D90 , i just love it .

[inkista]

If low-light capability isn't a big deal, and you're more of an action photographer, there's also the Fujifilm F300EXR--phase detection AF.

And their in-camera HDR is seriously cool, they're doing some really out-of-the-box thinking with their sensors.

[canonmick]

Inkista,

your advice has been valuable in the past, re different Canon lenses, etc.

given that old guys like me are easily spoiled by the image quality of my 5DMkIII and L lenses, but traveling around Europe is tiring without a camera, and not fun with a big back and lens, what would you recommend for a more travel friendly rig?

I tried out a Canon G10 and was not impressed with the image quality. Do you think that the Lumix or Nikon 4/3 type rig will approach the quality of my other equipment?

as always, many thanks for your expertise

canonmick

[inkista]

Just remember, I'm only a hobbyist shooter, and I'm mostly just relaying information I've found out there somewhere in the web via google.

If you're used to a full-frame with Ls, I'd say you probably want to look more at the mirrorless cameras than at P&Ses, particularly if you're looking for some low-light capability. While the P&Ses are doing nice things these days, the image quality has a completely different character from the larger sensored cameras.

So, Sony NEX, Samsung NX, or micro four-thirds are likely to be the cameras you want to look at for travelling light. The problem is the lenses. New, autofocusing, the pickings are slim. The micro four-thirds cams are ahead here, being the oldest system, but has a 2x crop factor disadvantage vs. the other cameras having 1.5x crop sensors. Between the NEX and NX, I'd go with the NEX, simply because you can adapt rangefinder M-mount/M39 lenses for it, which means you then have access to new Cosina Voigtlander and Zeiss lenses, as well as vintage glass. But not cheap, and no autofocusing.

You can adapt EOS lenses to these mirrorless cameras, but aperture control is problematic depending on the adapter (no aperture rings on the lenses). And you lose the size advantage pretty quickly. And, of course, if you like shooting wide or ultrawide, it's gonna be tough to find anything.