[Monty Burns]

Hi Guys

Im looking for a new camera. I want to be able to easily transfer pictures to my pc/phone either by wifi/bluetooth (direct) or the facility to email them. I want at least 10mp, as much optical zoom as poss and a flash!

Form factor: Would be great if I can get all this in a small enough unit to fit in a pocket, you know like those credit card type ones. I do however realise I'm asking for a lot and this form factor maybe wishfull!

Budget? I reckon 400 of the queens finest.


Any recommendations?


Many thanks in advance for your suggestions

[Yandros]

Firstly, forget about 10MP on a small sensor - totally pointless!!!

If you really want wifi, then something like a Nikon S7c perhaps. I gather though that the wifi implementation is pretty bad, and nobody uses it!

If I had to pick a pocket sized model, I'd be tempted by the Canon 850 IS (£264), and forget wifi/bluetooth. You get 7MP, 1600 ISO, image stabilisation, and a nice zoom range (28-105). I'd personally take the extra range at the wide end rather than the tele, so I'd favour that model over the 800 IS with the 35-140 lens.

The Ixus range is a bit bigger than credit card sized, but they're still pretty tiny. I played with one in Jessops when choosing a new compact for my girlfriend last year, but she rejected it because it was too small (and she has small hands).

[Monty Burns]

thanks for that!

What about if we didn't worry too much about the physical size?

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by Monty Burns

thanks for that!

What about if we didn't worry too much about the physical size?

If you want something jacket-pocketable, I'd still say something like the Canon IXUS range (size 90x58x25mm - 150g). Incidentally, these are all point and click types, designed to be pretty idiot proof, driven mostly by selecting scene modes.

If you want something with more user control (manual, aperture priority and shutter priority), and a bigger zoom, you're looking at something like the Canon Powershot G7 (£326), which is also image stabilised, 10MP, 35-210mm zoom, size 106x72x43mm-320g. This is obviously chunkier, so you'd probably want to try one in a shop to see if you could carry one around without it getting on your nerves.

Above that, you've got the superzooms like the Canon PowerShot S3 IS, which gives you a monster 36-432mm zoom, but you'll be carrying one of these in a small shoulder bag for sure.