Don’t get me wrong, DSLRs are fantastic. I learnt how to take photos with one, and buying new lenses is an expensive habit of mine. But however much I love my 10D (and - old as it is - it’s still serving me well after three years) my camera bag has got too large, and I desparately need a pocket-sized compact. For social and street photography and locations that aren’t suited to bulky equipment I want the following:

  1. Manual exposure control (or at least shutter/aperture priority).
  2. A decent, quick lens with bearable autofocus.
  3. Enough megapixels to be able to sell the results (6.3 min).
  4. Higher ISO settings that aren’t unusably noisy.
  5. A nice big LCD.
  6. Black finish - so much more discreet than silver.
  7. £300-ish.

Fuji Finepix F30? Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX50?

As a photographer, people often ask my advice about which compact to get. And as I’ve never owned one, I have to admit I haven’t got a clue. But I’ll do some research and post any useful conclusions here.