Best "pocket" camera with at least 20x optical?

txhunter58 · Nov 1, 2015

My wife has a decent bigger camera but wants one of the small ones (fits in your shirt pocket). She wants one that will easily slip in her purse.

Considering the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20, Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40,Sony DSC-HX60V/B, and the Sony DSC-HX90V/B

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

WVHUNTER · Nov 20, 2015

I have a Sony DSC HX50V which is an earlier model of the Sony you listed. It's about two years old. Camera models change about as fast as cell phones.

It's 30X which means it's a 28mm-720mm film camera equivalent or about 14 power magnification.

Things these cameras have now.

Wi-Fi, You can send your photos to your phone.

GPS, didn't know why I needed that but my wife told me if I toured Europe and took 500 photos it would tell me where they were. Still don't know why I need that.

Flash, some of the cameras the flash opens by itself, on the Sony you have to manually open it, which is the way I prefer.

View finder, mine doesn't have a view finder but that would be a benefit if you were trying to find a deer at 200 yards.

I like mine but these compact cameras don't take the same quality photos as the larger cameras, even with larger cameras in the same price range. They are grainy when you zoom out.

I am looking for a point and shoot camera that will take a sharp photo of a buck at 300 yards and fit in my shirt pocket but I haven't found that camera yet.

WVHUNTER · Nov 20, 2015

A couple photos I took with this camera. The small buck is about 75 yards but isn't zoomed all the way. The two does are about 150 yards zoomed all the way out. I don't think these are very good photos.

I looked at the properties on some of the photos I had downloaded and they had Latitude and Longitude and elevation, but the elevation was in meters. I looked at some Ireland photos and there wasn't any location on them so apparently the GPS didn't work in Europe.

txhunter58 · Nov 22, 2015

"I am looking for a point and shoot camera that will take a sharp photo of a buck at 300 yards and fit in my shirt pocket but I haven't found that camera yet. "

LOL, exactly my goal too! I think those photos are pretty good for the distance. Not magazine quality, but plenty good for my computer photos. Thx

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

WVHUNTER · Nov 22, 2015

Most of the major camera manufactures make a compact zoom camera with different bells and whistles. But they have sensors the same size and similar quality so I wouldn't expect the photo quality to be a lot different.

I like mine because I can carry it in my shirt pocket while hunting. I have found that when I carried a larger camera in my day pack I wouldn't have any photos when I got home because I wouldn't have time or bother to get the camera out of the pack.