Subcompact cameras, anyone?

[rolanni]

I've gotten a bug in my ear about getting a new camera. Mind you, I have a perfectly good (as soon I replace the duct tape holding the battery compartment shut, again) Minolta Dimage Z1, which takes a pretty good picture, though I could wish for image stabilization. Also, as it has been my goal over the years to lighten my load when I travel, I have deemed it "too big" to lug with me to, oh, WorldCon, and left it home, only to regret later that I had no pictures from the event.

This all being true, I've been looking at acquiring a subcompact camera; something I can slip into my pocket and take with. I'm not by any means a professional photographer, though I do have some proficiency, due to having had to be reporter-AND-photographer back when I was roving freelancer.

So! Bearing in mind that I cannot actually afford a new camera, but that Inquiring Minds always Want To Know, what are your recommendations?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

My small camera for when I don't want to carry the DSLR for many years has been a sony W5 but if your replacing a Dimage Z1 the W series will still probably be two big for you.

As previously suggested take a look at the image galleries on dpreview.

On a small camera a high mega-pixel count can be a bad thing. The high pixel density tends to mean a noisier image. The effect of a high level of noise-reduction is usually soft edges.

Richard