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Favorite point-and-shoot camera for the mountains?

  • knitvt
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12 years 8 months ago - 12 years 8 months ago #209975 by knitvt
Anyone have a favorite small point-and-shoot camera that you take skiing with you?  My old one bit the dust, so I'm looking to get a new one that takes decent pictures but that I'm not afraid to take out in the snow, stuff into my pack, etc - so not something particularly high-end.  Just curious if anyone's run across one they find does particularly well even if it faces a little roughhousing.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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  • lernr
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12 years 8 months ago #209979 by lernr
Nikon Coolpix AW100.

Shock, freeze, and waterproof. Will take significant abuse! Also has a GPS feature and makes OK movies. You can control with 'gestures' - but I never really did it.

Having said this, there are better photo-quality cameras of similar size. Not as rugged, though

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  • Randito
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12 years 8 months ago #209980 by Randito
+1 on AWS

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  • Lowell_Skoog
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12 years 8 months ago #209981 by Lowell_Skoog
I've been using the same Canon PowerShot SD880 IS camera for the past four years. It's still going strong. But I'm gentle with my gear.

I presume Canon has replaced it with a newer model.  If I were looking for a new point-and-shoot, I'd look at the Canon line again. This camera is tricky for shooting action, because the shutter response is pretty slow. But it takes nice scenics. You can see pictures shot with this camera on postings I've made since June 2009:

alpenglow.org/about/lowell-skoog/postings.html

I'm reasonably competent with a photo editor, and I always process my pictures for brightness, sharpness, etc. Any point-and-shoot will benefit from this sort of work.

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  • Charlie Hagedorn
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12 years 8 months ago #209990 by Charlie Hagedorn
Replied by Charlie Hagedorn on topic Re: Favorite point-and-shoot camera for the mountains?
I've had good luck with the waterproof Pentax W series. I've gotten ~3 years of hard use out of both a W30 and a W60; both still work well but have been retired to gentler pastures.

Current camera is a Canon S100 - big step up in image quality/control/speed, but not waterproof. Heartily recommended, though cameras presently on the market are probably equal/superior at the same price. Seems to handle moisture reasonably well, but have seen compromised screen function after dropping it into wet snow.

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  • Jim Oker
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12 years 8 months ago #209992 by Jim Oker
My wife has had good luck with her Canon SD880 - it is a pretty good quality pocketable compact camera. As Lowell notes, they likely have a fairly equivalent newer camera in their lineup.

I've done well with a Panasonic Lumix LX3. It has a better lens and sensor than most compact cameras, and it also shoots RAW, which I like as I'm able to squeeze a bit more out of the images in post-processing than if I were shooting JPEG. I'm not super hard on cameras, but I'm not super easy on them either, and this one has been going strong for a handful of years now. My only regret about the camera is that the newer LX5 and LX7 versions look like even better cameras. However, though it is relatively light and compact particularly for the quality it delivers, this camera is just beyond the size limit of what most people would consider "pocketable." If you like to tinker with your images in Lightroom or some such, and you like to have both set-and-forget as well as manual control options, and are willing to deal with a little added size/weight, this is one to consider.

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