Six of the Best

Six of the Best

No, not referring to Billy Bunter and Greyfriars School (there's something for many of us to Google to see what that's all about) but referring to compact cameras, one of photography's endangered species. After all, we have mobile phones, so why would we need a compact camera? I would suggest that once we start to look at the images in Phtoshop then there are plenty of reasons why, mostly related to control and quality. However, let's have a look at a new project that I'm starting today and we'll see what we can prove (or not) over the next few weeks.

The set-up is that I am featuring some of the cameras that are lying on our shelves, mostly unused but in perfect working order still. These are the ones that have fallen out of use, maybe I loan one to the kids when we have a day out with them, or even that sometimes I'll happily give away to someone who wants a start in photography. Once we see what cameras are available, I'll use each one for a day out somewhere and see how they stand up in terms of handling and quality of results. This will be a project subject to available time, but it will get done and hopefully the Christmas break might be a good time to start.

First we see what cameras we have.

Fujifilm Finepix 6900Z, 2001, 7.8-46.8mm f/2.8-3.2 (35-210mm equiv), 3.3MP interpolated to 6MP. Unfortunately this uses SmartMedia cards and I'm limited to one 128MB card.



Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd, 2008, 5.9-70.8mm f/2.8-5.6 (33-396mm equiv), 10MP. SD cards by now, so no problem.



Nikon Coolpix S9300, 2012, 4.5-81mm (25-450mm equiv), 16MP.



Nikon Coolpix 775, A very stress free day with this one as it's a replica made from foam. It's a stress-ball in effect. I don't think the pictures will be up to much though. 0 MP.



Pentax MX-1, 2013, 6-24mm f/1.8-2.5 (28-112mm equiv), 12MP. Actually my current compact camera, very versatile, excellent quality and the black finish starting to show a little brassing, just like Pentax promised in 2013. Unique brass top and bottom plates.



Fujifilm Finepix F50fd, 2008, 8-24mm f/2.8-5.1, 12MP. This is still used from time to time by Sue as her party camera. Great for nights out with the girls, she finds it's compact enough for a small handbag, nice and sharp and exposes well with its built in flash.



So there's our lineup and soon the first one will have its day. Watch this space!