Point and shoot camera recommendation.

I have one of these and it takes good macro pics. Zoom is not bad for old tech but for $20 + a memory card what can you lose? Uses only rechargable AA and a compact flash card.
Nikon 3100

The Cannon SX230HS


or better yet, the SX260HS


You will not believe what they can do!!!! The SX230HS has a 5.0 (W) - 70.0 (T) mm (35mm film equivalent: 28 - 392mm). And the SX260HS has a 4.5 (W) - 90.0 (T) mm (35mm film equivalent: 25-500mm)!!!

Camp, Forrest, Camp! wrote:
Thanks for the responses. The two biggest problems I run into are close pictures of dirt and long landscape shots.

For dirt pics, it is difficult to see differences in texture and color. Everything seems to look the same unless I get really close (within inches). For the long shots, everything flattens out and it looks like a 50m tall hill 200m away is the same size and distance as a garbage can right in front of me.

I would take a close look at these 2 candidates.

• COOLPIX P330
• COOLPIX P7700

They both have:

• VR
• Target finding AF
• 3D Feature

. The COOLPIX P330 has GPS. The COOLPIX P7700 has a macro feature for a focal range down to .8 inch.

Based on your stated needs & methods, some hands on experience may be needed to refine the priority of your needs vs a camera's capabilities. No single camera may have all the features needed though these look promising to me.

Thanks for the responses. The two biggest problems I run into are close pictures of dirt and long landscape shots.

For dirt pics, it is difficult to see differences in texture and color. Everything seems to look the same unless I get really close (within inches). For the long shots, everything flattens out and it looks like a 50m tall hill 200m away is the same size and distance as a garbage can right in front of me.

I can tell one that you do not want to buy... a Olympus VR-320 with sorry image stabilization/fuzzy pictures. The best image stabilization I've found is by Panasonic/Lumix even at 16X optical zoom. I would not be afraid to buy one used as I've had good service out of the ones I've owned. My first was a 10X Optical and as they have increased the zoom I've bought used ones on Ebay for less than $100.

Plenty of bad (anecdotal, good for me but not you, etc.) advice coming out here, try going to the right source and doing your own research for your own specific needs at
http://www.dpreview.com/
or subscribe to Consumer Reports...

I use mine in the field and have killed my share of cameras until these came out.

Olympus Tough TG-1, 12 megapixel, inter-changeable lenses.

WATER PROOF to 40 feet. Not just water RESISTANT like most.
SHOCK PROOF from a drop of upto 6.6 feet.

Several photos I took....

Wow. Many very good recommendations here.

I was going to recommend the Samsung Galaxy III, but you already have one. I found it takes almost as good of photos most of the time as my Nikon D60 and Sony DSC-T200. It's the photographer and not the camera that takes a great photo. (I sold my medium format cameras and dark room equipment after 30+ years of simi professional photography, so I've had experience using very good equipment capable of taking very high quality photos. The bottom line is it is still the photographer, not the equipment.)

I use a Stylus Tough (3000 was entry level when I got it) as my outdoor pocket camera alternative to phone. On my most recent trip to Europe, I carried it on rainy days and for the shorter outings when I didn't really plan to take pictures and thus left the DSLR in my cabin.

Panasonic, Canon, Pentax, Fujifilm have all had cameras of this type, Nikon has recently introduced one, and Sony may also be in the "tough" camera market. "Tough" models using sealed folded optics tend to be quite compact, those with pop-out lenses somewhat bulkier.

The "compact + tough" category is almost all screen on back as the only finder, and to the extent that they have manual controls, those controls are accessed my menu rather than dedicated buttons, dials, and control wheels.

Most compact cameras have several fixed focus points, down to about a meter or half meter, and will then focus closer in a dedicated macro mode. They all have sensors (usually CCD) less than 1/2" on the diagonal, operate most of the time lens wide open (or in very bright light with a smaller stop like f/8 inserted into the path), so don't have much control over depth of field.

I don't think you are going to like the speed in this category, particularly start-up times from shut-off or battery-saving modes, which can be several seconds for the camera to "boot" but shutter response can be pretty quick (a second or less) if the camera can quickly find focus, or it can hang up if it can't find focus, and ultimately take a picture at one focus extreme or the other. You will be having the camera off much of the time, because battery life on pocket sized compacts tends to be too short to leave the camera on all day.

Focus is another issue for your intended use, the contrast focus methods used by compacts, and the "intelligent" focus algorithms that scan the image to try to figure out on what to focus, can be totally confused by subjects like rocks, leaves, and stream beds. The thing is looking for faces, and trying to focus on eyes. My experience with these subjects, the camera needs an easy to use manual focus mode, and continuous focus, not just a few fixed points over the near to infinity range. That control over focus gets you into the advanced compact and "Pro-sumer" categories, e.g. Canon's Powershot S and G lines, Nikon's Coolpix P line, Fujifilm's X line. These tend to be not so compact, and prices overlap those of entry-level DSLRs and electronic viewfinder interchangable lens cameras, which would be what I would buy to do the kind of work you suggest.

When I was doing field geology, film camera era, there was no other option that worked as well as an SLR with a close focusing normal lens, but the cheapest SLR worked well enough.

samsung wb150f
14.2 megapixel 18x optical zoom
manual modes for complete control
or smart mode , still pix and HD video

on sale about $150