Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: PeterAit on June 23, 2014, 10:54:51 am

Title: Point and shoot rec needed
Post by: PeterAit on June 23, 2014, 10:54:51 am
Asking for my wife, who is quite knowledgeable about photography but is not interested in seeking the best IQ, making large prints, RAW files, or the like. She wants a light, compact point-and-shoot that in addition to the various auto modes they all have will also offer manual focus and manual ISO and exposure setting. She uses a Coolpix 820 now and likes most things about it except the lack of manual capabilities. Does any such camera exist?
Title: Re: Point and shoot rec needed
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on June 23, 2014, 02:46:43 pm
The Sony RX100 will do most of what you want, but not (AFAIK) manual focus. I suspect you'll struggle to get that on a point-and-shoot.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Point and shoot rec needed
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on June 23, 2014, 09:35:42 pm
Do not know about other p&s, but on my Canon G10, manual focus is achieved by fly-by-wire, lever-pushing method,  which is hardly the precision and feel of the traditional manual focus (i.e., turning the focus ring on the lens).
Title: Re: Point and shoot rec needed
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on June 24, 2014, 03:28:24 am
Sony RX100/B pdf User Guide (https://docs.sony.com/release/DSCRX100_guide_EN.pdf)
Using [DMF]/[Manual Focus]
Adjust the focus by turning the Control Ring

Very well read, Isaac, if less than well understood.

You turn the ring, a sensor detects that it's been turned and a motor adjusts the focus. It's precisely as Slobodan suspected: "fly by wire", by turning rather than pushing but with every bit of the same sensitivity and control.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Point and shoot rec needed
Post by: Paulo Bizarro on June 24, 2014, 04:13:16 am
How about this recent one? Seems like a good option:

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_sh_1_review/
Title: Re: Point and shoot rec needed
Post by: Isaac on June 24, 2014, 11:31:51 am
Very well read, Isaac, if less than well understood.

You turn the ring, a sensor detects that it's been turned and a motor adjusts the focus. It's precisely as Slobodan suspected: "fly by wire", by turning rather than pushing but with every bit of the same sensitivity and control.

Have you used MF on the Sony RX100? (Yesterday you didn't know (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=91034.msg741044#msg741044) RX100 had MF.)

I haven't used the Sony RX100, so I'll accept Michael Reichmann's hands-on report --

"The camera offers … and the lens surround ring has proper focusing action (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/sony_rx100.shtml). Together these mean that one can easily see the point of focus, confirm its accuracy and then reach it efficiently."