[miro]

I would skip all comapcts since most of them are not small.

I would go for some EVILs. In addition you can have a look at Nikon entry level dSLRs – a la 40D, 60D.

FIY: I have Smartphone, Prosummer compact, entry level dslr, and advanced dslr.

1 . Smartphone camera is really very nice.

2. I don’t use my prosumer camera for last 4 years. It is as big as my canon 400d+50/1.8 and slightly bigger and heavier than 400d+Tamron17-50/2,8 nonVC

3. Canon 400D – every time than I get this camera I say wow wonderful IQ, incredible small and light and versatile as any SLRs. If the light conditions are not good I get dedicated flash. Everything I put in shoulder bag. I have instant access to my camera.

4.canon 50d – for portraits and wildlife. For the rest 400d is exactly what I need.

I don’t have FF because it costs extra money and I worn from WOW effect by my small 400d.

EVILs seems to be the logical way If I have to choice small camera right now.



Greetings,

Miro

[Steinar1]

I have looked around a little and and EVIL is maybe not such a bad idea after all. The GF1 indeed seems to be the leader, but now there is the GF2, even smaller and with the same possibilities. The 20mm (I assume 40mm FF equivalent) would suit me just fine and the size is not prohibitive to carry around, even ina large pocket, it looks. There was some talk about Nikon bringing out an EVIL, but I guess we can forget that for a while. Otherwise, the Fuji X100, but it is hard to get and noone has really tried it.

[backcountryskier]

I think GF2 is probably the way to go.



That said... do think about Canon T3i with the tilt screen. You could be sitting at a park bench or cafe chair, camera on your lap, looking down. Pretty stealthy methinks. I think Nikon also has an entry-level (i.e. small) DSLR with tilt-swivel screen?

[Guest]

[quote name='Vieux loup' timestamp='1301439006' post='7212']The GF1 indeed seems to be the leader, but now there is the GF2, even smaller and with the same possibilities.[/quote]



The size differences are marginal between these two. Foremost, you may want to figure out whether you like the "controversial" touch screen interface of the GF2. The GF1 features a "classic" mode dial on top of the cam.

[DrJohn]

Hi,



I just want to mention that the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 also fits to any Olympus Pen, giving you an additional image stabilisation which can sometimes be quite handy. My personal always-in-the-pocket-camera (or, rather, in-my-bag-camera) is a Pen E-P1 which is available quite inexpensive plus the 20mm and the optical viewfinder VF-1 which almost perfectly displays the 20mm frame even though it has originally been designed for the 17mm Olympus pancake lens. If you select the center focus point, with a little exercise, you can focus and frame quite well with the viewfinder. Or you set the AEL/AEF button to focus in manual mode, prefocus on a target of the same distance as the object you want to take a photo of and shoot virtually without any delay.

If I want to have the camera as small as possible, I simply remove the viewfinder. The Pen produces excellent JPG images aswell as raw files (.ORF) that can be converted with the free software Olympus Viewer.



Kind regards,

Johannes