Point and Shoot Purchase Advice

[jerstw]

Looking at a new point and shoot and am open to most brands...and have been looking mostly at Canon, Fuji and Lumix. Given I haven't paid much attention to this industry the past decade I am looking for input from the Expo members to help me spend my money as I figure this audience will give me more relevant review info than many websites.

CRITERIA:

1. Rugged enough for outdoor adventures, hiking, camping trips, snowshowing, fat-biking, etc. and MUST work well in cold weather (-25F), this is one of the main reasons I need to get a new camera as my iPhone 6 Plus would always shut down on me when out hiking this past winter, even when the temp was in the low 30's. Also, the ability to take fall on the ground at least once would nice...planning to carry it mostly in a leather shooters case or my backpack but accidents happen
2. 1080p minimum video, 4K would be nice but not a huge priority
3. Was hoping to keep the budget for camera at a around $600 but am easily convinced to spend more than I should.
4. I would like it to be able to fit in my pant pocket for quick trips during the day but realize that can limit feature so open to a bit larger camera if worth the trade-off
5. Rotating screen / display vs. a fixed panel on the back

Any models you think meet most of the above criteria I would appreciate hearing about and any you think I should avoid also welcomed feedback.

Thank you!

 

[kmlacroix]

http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/digitalcameras/tg-4.html

I have a TG-1. It is a good camera.

 

[jerstw]

TG-4 looks interesting. Will go check one out. Thanks.

 

[kpredator]

camera

another vote for TG-4.for more focal length check out the canon sx series,panasonic lumix fz series.we have had good luck with these.
Olympus is coming out with the rx-10 that looks interesting.
as far as a -25 camera,have two batterys take them out and use your body heat to keep them warm.
if I keep my I-phone in a interior pocket of my jacket I have no problems in cold weather.

 

[jerstw]

The RX-10 is Olympus or Sony? Asking as my Googling only comes back with a Sony camera of that model name.

I tried the same trick with my iPhone all last winter and it still would shut down. I went so far as to put a couple hand warmers in my pack next to my phone and within about 1 minutes of being in the cold shutdown...maybe I just have a bad battery in my phone.

 

[99Discovery]

+1 on the Olympus Tough. We use them at work, I bought a TG-2 for home use. We've used 1's and 4's at work. I bought a 2 and my cousin bought a 3. Out of all of them (including the ones at my work, which are used in wet/dusty/damp/falling envrionments), only the TG-3 failed at that was my Cousin's wife dropping it on a weird corner on concrete and broke the plastic. I think she even managed to scratch the screen.

Crazy, since we use them in boilers with fly-ash everywhere and don't even have a screen protector on the back, and because of our suits, we don't even put them in a case, just the wrist-band and the camera tucked inside the suit. They get banged up like crazy.

Enough on the weather sealing/water proofing of the Olympus Tough, but the TG-4 adds RAW camera output. They have an AMAZING macro (with the LED light dispersal adapter acessory it is even better), so much so that we use them for weld inspections at work. As a test, we used the TG-4 with light ring and I shot my pants....you could see the denim pattern as well as stray fibers, it looked like a photo of a wire-mesh grating. Pretty incredible.

Like most point and shoots, noise isn't the best, but every camera is equipped with an F2.0 lens which holds it's F2.0 rating for quite a ways. It does not have a very good reach, but is decent at the wide side. So if you need a telephoto, don't look here (but most telephoto P&S aren't pocketable, and if they are, the retractable lens usually fails due to dust. With the Olympus Tough, no issues.

The 1080p video is a bit over-saturated. I need to play with this. Many consumers love it, I prefer a more baseline capture and then add my saturation and contrast to taste in post.

Startup time-to-focus aquisition-to-shooting is very good for a P&S. You won't miss many shots with this one.

I've used them so much that the Olympus Tough is now my go-to recommendation to many people for a point and shoot, and more so for overlanders, where it is the perfect multi-camera tool.

For the record, I also use a Nikon D800 with an assortment of lenses, a Cannon XH-A1 (the only bargain way to get a triple-CCD video camera with pro lens), and a trio of Garmin Virbs for vehicle/dash cam shots. The Olympus Tough is an indispensable tool for both my still and video shooting when I am out on an adventure, and gets roughly 25-30% of the stills and photos from amongst these tools, mainly because of it's portability and ease of use.

Good luck!

 

[Joe917]

very happy with our Olympus TG3

 

[dstn2bdoa]

It doesn't look as tough as the Olympus shown above, but I've been researching point and shoot cameras and am drawn to the Sony Rx100IV. Definitely in a different price range, but shoots 4K and fits in a pocket or small pelican case. My criteria is similar to yours except for the cold weather requirement.

 

[robgendreau]

I have the Panny TS5 and it's a great little unit; one of the rugged or tough cameras. Like all of those, rather limited in focal lengths, but works great wide. Good waterproofing, GPS is accurate, and it has one of the better wifi implementations.

See here if you wanna see how an earlier version performs after being frozen in ice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4YfTbdGdPw

 

[KHJPHOTO]

[video=vimeo;166234255]https://vimeo.com/166234255[/video]

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/166234255" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="https://vimeo.com/166234255">Sony RX10 Mark 3 Field Test</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user50979733">Karl Johnson</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

 

[dms1]

Canon g7x or Canon G7X Mark II - Rivals the Sony at a lower cost. Also, according to a lot of reports and reviews, the Sony can only record 4K for a couple of minutes at a time, and if you keep trying to record in 4K the camera will overheat. One more thing, if you are thinking about the Sony you might want to wait a month or two because they might be announcing a newer version of the DSC-RX100 IV wich means you might be able to get the current version for less ot just get the newest version. YMMV.