[Yossarian]

now that sounds like a better idea...

incidentally, if you need a camera bag that'll both match your uzi and prevent the ingress of dust from exploding hospital in gaza then you should check out kata-bags.com...

"Nitzan Kimchi and Dror Tishler, founders of KATA, became acquainted with sophisticated military equipment during their service in an elite combat unit. Subsequently, they developed and offered solutions for themselves and other special units for over a decade. In 1992, in response to an increased demand for their products, and following an extended process of product development, they decided to establish KATA."

personally, i'm holding out until they launch a backpack with both an integral laser designator and a self-destruct system.

[Iesu]

I'm no camera geek but i second the motion presented by Falling Down. Leica D-Lux 3 = good point and shoot.

and then I found this...the camera that can claim to be "son of M8"
http://en.leica-camera.com/photography/compact_cameras/d-lux_4/

it's got the hot-shoe, baby

[dave]

fuck the camera just get that leather pouch, it looks well dapper.

[Iesu]

i've got one for my D-Lux 3. Not sure if i'd recommend it as it makes you look a tad bavarian whilst at the crag. Having said that i haven't tried it as a combo with my new year mustache. hhhm

[Ru]

The Leica D Lux 4 is essentially the same camera as the Panasonic but £150 more expensive. But that case is nice. And I further note from that photo Dave posted it that would look good sitting on the seat of the Ferrari Daytona. Plus you get the case free with the Leica up to the end of January, so essentially you are paying less than £100 for the red dot. Hmm...

[Iesu]

a couple of other factors that differentiate the Leica are that you get a 3 YEAR warranty, different (better) software bundled with the camera and the JPEG processing on-board is far superior to better the Panasonic.

[Johnny Brown]

i'm not convinced by leica benefits, most of their market will merrily pay anything as long as there's a red dot... the additional cost pushes it beyond what i would ever be prepared to pay for a compact

i still haven't committed as i've not being mountaineering for a while. that distortion thing is interesting as based on this review i had been leaning towards an lx-3, although that review annoyingly includes the ricoh r10 not gx-200.

in the meantime i've been watching the micro 4/3rds concept with interest - the g1 is looking neat and olympus' offering could be really interesting.

[Yossarian]

The Leica D Lux 4 is essentially the same camera as the Panasonic but £150 more expensive. But that case is nice. And I further note from that photo Dave posted it that would look good sitting on the seat of the Ferrari Daytona. Plus you get the case free with the Leica up to the end of January, so essentially you are paying less than £100 for the red dot. Hmm...

how about the alvis?

[Iesu]

i'm not convinced by leica benefits, most of their market will merrily pay anything as long as there's a red dot... the additional cost pushes it beyond what i would ever be prepared to pay for a compact

I should add that my mate had the last panasonic version of that and in the same situations I can't tell the difference between the shots we took, apart from the fat that his are generally betterer because of the subject matter (i.e. me).

If you're shooting for RAW the JPEG proc don't matter a jot, and then all you're left with is the Warranty (I'm definitely in favour of paying more up front if there's good quality warranty/support thrown in - e.g. BOSE, Apple) and a snazzy leather satchel that the lumix would probably fit in anyway.

oh yeah, and the leica just looks a lot nicer. ya boo

[Ru]

Micro 4/3 looks interesting, but it seems like it might be a while before anything I would buy will come on the market and my current compact has a line of pixels missing on the CCD, so time is of the essence.

The Lx3 reviews don't tend to mention the distortion as the JPEGs are corrected in camera (so you never see it), and most reviews also test the bundled software which corrects the RAW images as they come out (so you never see it). It seems that it's only later when people have tried to use non bundled software that it has been noticed. Correcting it isn't such a big hassle, but once the software has bent the shots straight and cropped off the rest I bet you're losing a reasonable amount of resolution.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Leica would also look good in an Alvis.

[Yossarian]

The well-dressed motorist is a demanding customer when it comes to leather products...

I've not read much about the G10 and the new Nikon equivalent.  Only that some bloke took a picture with a Phase One P45 and a G10 and couldn't tell the difference or something.  However good they are, they both look like the kind of compact camera that would be purchased by a man with a very small penis.

Perhaps we could put ourselves forward as a focus group for the development of Nikon's next venture in this field? 

They could call it the F-UK B2010 or something...

[soapy]

of course you could go the other way and get a cheapo jobbie, it's only a compact digi anyway

[Tom de Gay]

I recently found myself in Yodobashi Camera with some time to kill. It's basically a big toyshop for grown-ups, they have row upon row of demo copies of every camera on the market; I think I tried most of them so I will attempt to bring some SCIENCE to this discussion.

First up - Ricoh
I've got to grips with the GX100 now and it's great. Did a few winter strolls and it's fine to operate with gloves, one-handed (using LC1 lenscap). I'm not much of a macro man but the 1cm focusing distance and moveable focus point is a lot of fun.

Up to ISO 200 noise is fine; beyond that it's horrendous. In snap focus mode the shutter lag is not too bad. Metering and white balance could be better, though if you're shooting RAW the latter is not so much of a problem.

Overall, it's a bit hit and miss, but when it hits it's really pretty good:






Also tried the 19mm and 135mm convertors. The latter slows the focusing down considerably and weighs as much as the camera. Its optical quality seems good, perfectly sharp with no distortions. The lens hood / filter mount might be worth having to protect the lens from the elements. The optional electronic viewfinder is actually migrane inducing.

Disappointingly, Ricoh seem to have shafted the autofocus in the GX200 by taking out phase-detection. It is noticeably slower in flat light.

GRDII is a very slick camera, more compact than the GX. It apparently has slightly better image quality than the GX (+ supports Adobe RGB colourspace). 40 and 21mm adapters available. The optional lens hood is just ridiculous. Voigtlander optical viewfinders are great, really bright.

The R10 is not much fun at all - no easy access to manual controls.

Panasonic

LX3 - as I said before it is quite fiddly and you really need to use both hands; also I don't think you have the option to do multiple saved settings. It turns out that Panasonic's stated ISO 400 is actually ISO 200 - no wonder it 'performs better in low light'!

The Leica version has the added advantage of making your wallet lighter.

Not too sure about the G1 either. It's not that much smaller than an entry level DSLR and the electronic viewfinder is fairly grim. Plethora of fairly useless scene modes.

Also played with the Olympus E420 plus pancake lens. Again, not actually that small or light, so you might as well use a proper DSLR or a proper compact.

Canon G10
Good zoom range, good scroll wheel, pretty fancy on-screen graphics for changing aperture etc. The ergonomics seem good though you are paying for a bunch of dials which might not be that useful (ISO 1600 anyone?) and a tiny optical viewfinder. Reviews say the images are very noisy above base ISO.

Sigma DP1
Actually seems pretty good! Well designed body, good layout of controls, menus OK. It ain't half slow though - slow to focus, slow to record - kind of glacial really. Amusingly the store was plastered in giant publicity shots for this camera showing some bloke falling off a tasty sport route. By all accounts the image quality is fairly spectacular, plus the price has fallen considerably - probably as the DP2 is coming out soon.

So the verdict: no regrets about getting the Ricoh, though if I was buying again I'd also consider the DP1 or 2.

[soapy]

missed this comparative review from last year

[Johnny Brown]

you want to read my posts more carefully.

[soapy]

I do so hang on your every word

[Stubbs]

However good they are, they both look like the kind of compact camera that would be purchased by a man with a very small penis.

  

Thankfully the macro function on my G7 is sufficiently good that I can just about make it out 

[Yossarian]

See, sometimes focus groups do work.

I must admit though that my statement has not been fully tested.  However, I think that it would stand up to Popperian scrutiny, in the sense that it is wide open to refutation.

So, come forward all you well-endowed Canon G-series users.  Wop 'em out...

[Stubbs]

I've been nowt but happy with my G7, despite it being an indicator of my micropenis;  I've been learning how to use it on fully manual recently which has been a lot of fun, the scroll wheel makes it very quick and easy to change aperture and shutter speed.  The menus are really easy to navigate and find what you want - haven't had to use the manual to find out how to do anything, yet. 

I came from a low res compact before my G7 so couldn't really say how it compares to DSLRs, but it does have the reassuring solidity of the metal case, I've dropped it quite a few times now and its stood up to the punishment! Haven't got any pretty photos to show you on my work computer, some pretty rubbish ones here http://flickr.com/photos/67465024@N00/  from when I first got it.  Hopefully will get some good ones in beeshop!

[Yossarian]

I like "Chris With a Snake"...

At the risk of both appearing hypocritical and offending JB and the don't touch it in photoshop crew, i would extract that snake and then enlarge it by, say 400% and then repaste it about a foot away from "Chris".

Then flog the picture to Lonely Planet.

[Tom de Gay]

This could be a bargain:
http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Cameras%20and%20Lenses/Digital%20Compact%20Cameras/products/Ricoh/Caplio%20GX100%20Viewfinder%20Kit-64880/Show.html]
[url]http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Cameras%20and%20Lenses/Digital%20Compact%20Cameras/products/Ricoh/Caplio%20GX100%20Viewfinder%20Kit-64880/Show.html[/url]

[Johnny Brown]

MOTHERFUCKER. I spent £170 on a second-hand one, without viewfinder, almost two weeks ago.

[Tom de Gay]

NNFN?

[Johnny Brown]

That page seems to have just disappeared anyway. Crazed UKBers must have scooped all the stock.

[cofe]

didn't get chance. well, that's still 100 notes burning a hole in my pocket.