lloydl2 Loc: Gilbert, AZ

Many of the places you could buy the sony rx100 camera offer zero interest financing some possibilities are amazon (on the store card), BestBuy, BHphoto and adorama usually offer 12 months no interest maing it a little less painful.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

Thanks for the advice on buying a used RX 100 VI. I'm pursuing all of the leads mentioned. I think it will work out such that I can buy one but it'll take some time (including other maneuvers, like asking relatives for cash for Christmas, I need to sell some stuff on ebay). I much appreciate the advice given on this thread.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

I'm the OP on this thread and have resurrected it to let all of you who so generously and kindly helped me with good advice know what I decided regarding the purchase of a high IQ pocketable camera. It was a difficult decision but I finally settled on the Sony RX100. I very much felt I needed the 200mm reach of the RX100 VI, as opposed to the earlier versions. It was complicated by my monetary restrictions and I had set $400 as the limit but there was no way I was going to find a VI at that price. But I did find a "near new" listing on ebay from a camera store for $600 and between asking my relatives for cash for Christmas, selling some items (not photographic) on ebay, and some help from interest free PayPal credit, I bought that one. So it was a Christmas present "from me to me." It turned to be what I would judge as mint, even better than the listed near new.

I've had it a few days and am somewhat overwhelmed by the complexity such a tiny camera and found that the instructions by Sony that came with it were very inadequate in explaining everything so I have purchased a guide by Alexander White that's very comprehensive and helping a lot, 250 pages for such a little camera! My difficulties are complicated by the menu system being different than any I've used before, and problems remembering so many things when out shooting. But with the help of the manual I believe I will adequately learn the camera eventually.

Part of the problem is also inadvertently hitting a button with something new then popping up seemingly out of nowhere. I have small hands but that's still a problem which isn't surprising of course. I know there are hand grips available for it and I wonder if that would be helpful - anyone with any experience with that?

I haven't had it long enough, or acquired enough skill yet, to fully assess it's IQ, especially the sharpness, but as best I can determine to this point it's going to be very acceptable in that regard.

Thanks again to everyone who was so helpful. All of you really contributed to my having a great Holiday. Happy 2020 everyone.