What is your choice for a pocket camera

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Dman17

Member
I'm in the market for a more casual camera for every day carrying around. I know most people in the forum care about quality of video and photo, so I figure you would be the best to ask.
I'm looking for good pictures and good HD video 720p or higher. I would love to have a hot shoe option, but it's not really necessary.
I'm not considering the Pens or the GF1 types, something smaller.
Thanks in advance.
 
I have a Panasonic Lumix TZ7 (ZS3 in US), pretty good pics and video for being a truly pocketable small point-n-shoot with a fairly long zoom range. It's just been succeeded by TZ10 so you should be able to pick up the 7 for a low price or the newer 10 - guess it has improvements but haven't check it yet.
 
Dman17 said:
I'm in the market for a more casual camera for every day carrying around. I know most people in the forum care about quality of video and photo, so I figure you would be the best to ask.
I'm looking for good pictures and good HD video 720p or higher. I would love to have a hot shoe option, but it's not really necessary.
I'm not considering the Pens or the GF1 types, something smaller.
Thanks in advance.
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The Lumix LX3 is sexy as hell. It's basically a smaller GF1 with a fast zoom leica lens. It has a control ring on the lens. Cool point and shoot.
 
Ben_B said:
The Lumix LX3 is sexy as hell. It's basically a smaller GF1 with a fast zoom leica lens. It has a control ring on the lens. Cool point and shoot.
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The only down side with the LX3 is that it only shoots motion J-peg. I did a few tests and pans looked a little choppy. The TZ7 from all reports from people like Martti is the AVCHD will play back much smoother and it also shoots Motion J-peg if you need to.
 
Ben_B said:
The Lumix LX3 is sexy as hell. It's basically a smaller GF1 with a fast zoom leica lens. It has a control ring on the lens. Cool point and shoot.
Click to expand...

I went to a local camera store last week and popped a SD card in the LX3. I finally encoded the video last night, and the video is pretty choppy. I noticed it also when I was at the store playing it back thru the camera. The camera guy said it was pretty old and no word of a new model coming ( pretty sad when a camera is 1 year old, it's considered old). The LX3 was real small and with a hot shoe.
I do like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, I like the avchd lite quality and recording time. I'm going to try to find one local so I can test it out.
 
I've had my LX3 on me everyday since the day it dropped some time in September 08... I love this lil bastard. There is a LX3 vimeo group, where people have done some really amazing things
 
Dman17 said:
I went to a local camera store last week and popped a SD card in the LX3. I finally encoded the video last night, and the video is pretty choppy. I noticed it also when I was at the store playing it back thru the camera. The camera guy said it was pretty old and no word of a new model coming ( pretty sad when a camera is 1 year old, it's considered old). The LX3 was real small and with a hot shoe.
I do like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, I like the avchd lite quality and recording time. I'm going to try to find one local so I can test it out.
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The 550D is the best pocket camera, just need a bigger pocket.
 
Other than the 640x480 video (which falls short of your video requirement), the Canon Powershot S90 is the p&s choice of professional photographers, unless they opt for the bulkier g11.
 
Dman17 said:
I went to a local camera store last week and popped a SD card in the LX3. I finally encoded the video last night, and the video is pretty choppy. I noticed it also when I was at the store playing it back thru the camera. The camera guy said it was pretty old and no word of a new model coming ( pretty sad when a camera is 1 year old, it's considered old). The LX3 was real small and with a hot shoe.
I do like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3, I like the avchd lite quality and recording time. I'm going to try to find one local so I can test it out.
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure it shoots 24p so that might be what you're seeing as choppy. Also, I have no idea if you can set the shutter speed, but if it's anything faster than 1/50 it will be stuttery.
 
I've had a Kodak Zi6 for a little while and I love it. Office Max had them on sale for $70, so it was an absolute steal for a 720p camcorder that is the size of a cell phone.
 
HorseFilms said:
I've had a Kodak Zi6 for a little while and I love it. Office Max had them on sale for $70, so it was an absolute steal for a 720p camcorder that is the size of a cell phone.
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For a true pocket that Kodak sounds great.

I like your horse avatar also. It's excellent.
 
ROCKMORE said:
For a true pocket that Kodak sounds great.
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It's no replacement for a professional camera (no manual controls), but I don't carry my DVX around with me everywhere I go, so I'll take it. In decent light, the image quality is surprisingly good.

ROCKMORE said:
I like your horse avatar also. It's excellent.
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Thanks!:beer:
 
I have to agree with a few people. LX3 is a great little camera for the size and price. It has a hot shoe and pretty fast lens for a point and shoot (PaS) and also it records on a CCD, which improves some issues such as jello and such, but...

Honestly the LX3 or any PoS would not really work well for any pro work, if being used with a 5D or GH1, so I strongly suggest the Lumix ZS3. Much smaller and less expensive, records 720p AVCHD lite, which is a stellar format adn has lots of video functionality.

I would suggest ZS3 for a nice pocket cam that records great amateurish video, but I know the Lumix ZS7 is coming out soon also, which will be a step up and probably the best point and shoot cam on market when it is released. It will probably be around $400-500. I would hold out for that one.
 
CORRECTION!!!

I just noticed on Amazon that the Lumix DMC-ZS7 (the updated ZS3) is in stock for $350. This is hands down the newest and in my opinion best "point and shoot" pocket camera that records HD video also. The ZS3 was already renowned for it video capabilites (in a point and shoot). Philip Bloom claims to keep this on him at all times. The ZS7 has some major improvements....


  • Venus Engine HD II processor (faster than ZS3)
  • Improved Power OIS image stabilization
  • New Intelligent Resolution feature offers improved sharpening and a nearly lossless digital zoom
  • Faster autofocus
  • Manual exposure controls (improvement)
Hope this helped. Probably gonna save up for one of these myself.

 
If you need something what you can really carry in your pocket any time, take a look at the Creative Vado HD.

Here's some test i did with it:



 
Panasonic FZ35. I just got it and have been having fun. It's a SMIDGE big for your pocket (pants)...fits fine in my jacket. The super-zoom is INSANE. The .mts files avchd are a bit of a pain, but I think I have a workflow that works great. It's image stabilization is AWESOME....It also has MOST manual control (if not all)....I can tell it's going to have it's quirks...but every camera does. I'm VERY excited so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43R4Z9Oznhk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLX147s1YQY
 
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