Advice needed. P&S camera for my mother.

[Pontus]

My mother has a great eye for photography. She used Konica SLR's in the 80's and she even did some freelancing. Those days are long gone now and what she needs is a camera with great IQ but it needs to fit in her purse and it needs to be as easy as use as possible. She will only use the camera in it's auto setting. She takes pictures of food, flowers, people, domestic animals and interiors. The pictures will be for display on computer screens only and she won't be doing much cropping if any.

IMPORTANT
- small size
- good high ISO
- good semi-macro
- good A-mode
- easy to use
- wide and preferably fast lens
- stabilisation
- Good JPG

LESS IMPORTANT
- pixel count
- zoom range
- price
- RAW

I don't know if she would use a viewfinder after getting used to using the screen on her latest cameras.

Any camera will be a compromise, you can't have it all. But which camera would you recommend?

[tb_a]

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LF1

This camera fulfills every requirement you have.

From the useability I would in any case recommend a Lumix - I have bought one for my mother too and she is very happy with it. Although she seems to be less educated than your mother.

Greets, Thomas

[Pontus]

[Pontus]

I wonder if the best camera for my mother wouldn't be a Nikon Coolpix A (28mm) or a Fuji X100S (35mm). I'm just not sure if she would accept a camera without a zoom.

[tb_a]

Neither Nikon nor Fujifilm offer image stabilisation. Nikon only offers F2.8 as fastest aperture....
No zoom, etc.

Still, the Lumix is the better option when you also think that your mother will mainly display pictures on TV.
Those large sensor cameras are only necessary if your mother is going to produce posters out of her pictures.

However - it's your decision in any case.

[Pontus]

Oh, I hadn't noticed the lack of image stabilisation.

The large sensor isn't about many pixels though. It's about low noise in high ISO pictures making these cameras better in low light situations. Image stabilisation is good if your subject stands still but if you have a moving subject like a child or a dog, you really need fast shutter speeds to freeze the image.

Also, f2.8 on the Nikon gives more depth of field control and light gathering capacity than the Lumix because of the larger sensor.

[tb_a]

Lumix 1/4000 Sek should be fast enough for that in e.g. 28mm / F2.0 mode .....

[Pontus]

Yes it should. In fact 1/100th of a second should do in most cases.

[tb_a]

The more I check the Lumix the more I am thinking of buying one for myself as an alternative camera for every day use.......
There are some really nice features and according to an Austrian consumer test magazine it's also the number 1 in terms of overall picture quality in this class of cameras.
Will see.....

[tb_a]

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 may be an alternative ??

[Pontus]

Yes, I've looked into that one as well. And Ricoh GR (which also lacks stabilisation and is a 28mm fixed focal lenght camera).

[tb_a]

But if you go for a fixed focus one without image stabilisation then the class leader for the time being is the Ricoh GR.
That's the clear winner in all Magazines so far as it delivers really DSLR quality in a nice little camera with an outstanding user interface.

[kansalliskala]

Since she used SLR's: does she want to use an optical viewfinder?

[Pontus]