The Perfect Compact Camera

I must admit that many of my ideas about the perfect small camera are not my own. In my quest for this camera, I've come across a number of people who have described the problem and the potential solutions much better than I. My undisputed authority on this subject is Mike Johnston who runs and authors The Online Photographer blog (I plan to devote a Thinking on Paper post to Mike sometime in the future). Back in 2006 he wrote a short treatise on what he called the "decisive moment digital" that is must reading if you have any interest in this sort of thing. A free copy of this six-page paper is available here. If you search his blog for "DMD" you will find a lot of additional thinking and commentary on this elusive piece of equipment.

The other excellent source for thinking along small camera lines is Thom Hogan, who maintains a site devoted to all things Nikon. In 2007, he wrote an article titled "Thom's Compact Camera Challenge" where he offers to design the "DMD" since the major camera manufacturer's don't seem to want to.

Finally, if you want to read Mike commenting on Thom and measuring the Sigma DP1 against the "DMD" standard, there's a great article here. All of this is good thinking and great reading.

Coolpix P6000 a Non-Starter

Continuing my quest for the perfect small, digital, photographer's camera, I was reading through the detailed specs of the Coolpix P6000 when I came across mention that the RAW format is something called “NRW”. "NRW" I says? What’s wrong with good old NEF that’s served me so well? And why is there an asterisk next to every mention of this NRW? Scrolling down, I find this:

"COOLPIX Picture Control NRW (RAW) files can only be processed in-camera. NRW (RAW) files are compatible for use in-camera, with ViewNX (Windows version only) or with WIC based applications. Capture NX, Capture NX2 and NEF files are not compatible with NRW (RAW) images."

Can’t be! I says. Nikon in bed with Microsoft? I’m a Mac user (switched about a year ago) and a regular user of OS X photo apps, primarily Lightroom and iPhoto. I jumped ship to Mac to get away from Microsoft and Vista. Looking at Microsoft's information about WIC (I thought it was a federal program for Women, Infants and Children) wasn’t very revealing but it didn’t give me a warm supportive feeling: “… extensible framework, blah blah, image codec’s, blah blah…”

So I jump over to the Adobe Lightroom forum and confirmed my fears through a post from Thomas Knoll who says that WIC is Windows only and unusable in Lightroom. Finally, I check in with Thom Hogan (Nikon guru and columnist) and find he’s recommending to “skip the P6000”.

Sound Advice.

Looking for that little camera

I've been a Nikon shooter for a number of years although I cut my photographic teeth on a Canonet G-III QL17. It was a wonderful camera and produced hundreds of memorable family snaps. When the Canonet gave up the ghost, my next serious camera was the all-manual Nikon FM2n. I succumbed to digital with a Nikon D70 followed by the D200 when it was released and now the D300. Along the way I also accumulated about a dozen lenses and each still has its use, especially since some of my beloved manual lenses from the FM2n work just fine on the D300. But, the idea of a single "walk-around" lens is kinda foreign to me. I can never get by with less than two lenses and only have peace of mind with a minimum of three (or four if there might be a macro opportunity in the offing). Throw in a tripod and I can't go on a trip with less than a 100 lbs of gear. I'm starting to miss that Canonet... There's a certain elegance to a small camera that takes great pictures without getting in the way of the picture taking process. And that fixed lens! It was nice not having to make the choice about which lens to use.

So I'm on the lookout for the digital equivalent of the Canonet G-III. Not literally of course, but something with a good lens, pocketable size (smaller than the G-III), reasonable image quality and responsive operations. Since I've been spoiled by the digital SLRs, I would also like a Raw image format. This wouldn't replace the D300, just provide an alternative for those times when I can't or don't want to lug a big camera around. I've been searching for some time now with little result, but I think I see light at the end of the tunnel in from the recently announced Panasonic LX3 or the Nikon Coolpix P6000. Probably further down the line are Panasonic and Olympus cameras based on the Micro Four Thirds standard. None of these cameras are shipping or available for review, but when they hit the streets it's really gonna get interesting. I'm thinking that little black LX3 might look pretty good on me.