I think that any camera person is a de facto gadget person. If you get into this hobby seriously there is a ton of STUFF you want to buy to make your photos better – lenses, flashes, tripods, lighting, the cameras themselves, then bags to hold it all. With the age of digital cameras there is also the compulsion to get a new camera on a regular basis as technology improves with better megapixels, etc., etc. Sometimes I think it would be nice to strip it all down and just carry one camera that would do what I wanted. This would have to be a special camera, though. If I could design the perfect point-and-shoot, here’s what I would have on it…
- Small , but not too much – something the size of the current Nikon S series would be nice. Too small and you can’t get it on a tripod.
- Rugged – bump proof, scratch proof, and, oh yeah, water proof to 3 meters.
- Highest megapixel range available – I know this is a moving target, and that megapixels aren’t everything, but might as well start at the top.
- Ability to shoot RAW as well as JPEG
- Wide ISO range – lows down to at least 100 and up to 3200 with little to no noise would be nice.
- Manual controls for aperture, shutter speed, and white balance
- Wide focal length – 18-120 would be good. Wider would be more important than telephoto because it would be hard to hold a camera that small still enough for a long lens.
- Vibration Reduction
- Built-in GPS for automatic geotagging
- Video mode with 720p available
- WiFi Enabled
- 4 inch LCD screen for preview
- Touch screen with variable focus (this is been nice on my S70)
- Speed multi shot and interval shot modes
- Long battery life
- Available external power source
- Oh, and all this for around $100
See, I’m not asking for much. There are some options on current cameras that just don’t interest me. I never use all those automatic scene modes, and facial recognition isn’t that important to me. I also am not interested in in-camera editing. I’d prefer to do that on a larger computer screen where I can see everything.
I’ve seen a few cameras that come close to this list, but haven’t found one with all of this. Who knows? If I can find a camera like this, I might forsake my DSLR for this jewel. Nah! I think I’m too much of a gadget guy.
Tom, let me know when you find it!