busco53 Loc: Rexburg, Idaho

I also believe the Canon G16 is the way to go. Good luck!

gee4time

Don't Knock Cellphones. This shot was taken with a iPhone 6+ in Taiwan last Nov. Wrong Picture. This was taken with my Canon 7D. Sorry.

Southern Tip of Taiwan

billybob40

CHECK THIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_EyjM6WpmE
It does it, I have it. Going to get another one.

BillKe

RE: "Sony A6000"

My son-in-law has a Sony A6000. This is a really good camera and I admit I was tempted to buy one. IQ is excellent, but my D7100 is not that much bigger to warrant investing in another system.

If you want interchangeable lenses, a decent size (APS-C) sensor and "pocketability" is not an issue--I agree.

singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

Are you related to a kangaroo? You must have HUGE pockets to be able to slide a mirrorless camera and lens into your pocket. Even my safari pants patch pockets can't take a camera with a reasonable zoom lens attached. However if you need to have a zoom lens, then both the A6000 and A7000 are nice, reasonably sized and full featured cameras but far from pocket sized as a system.

gee4time

Don't Knock Cellphones. This shot was taken with a iPhone 6+ in Taiwan last Nov. 2014

(Download)

BillKe

OK, you can get decent pics with an iPhone--sometimes. BUT--low light performance is a function of sensor size and resolution (megapixels). Nixon's most expensive camera is only 16 megs--why--they are after speed and low light performance. The more pixels per sq mm of sensor area, the worse the noise performance. A D810 has worse noise performance than a D4 for that reason (even though they have the same size sensor).

I have been to Italy many times--the buildings are DARK, especially the churches. iPhones suck in low light because their sensors are small. The iPhone 5S has an area of 17.3 sq mm, 1/50th of a full frame sensor. A 1/1.7 camera has a sensor 1/20 the size of a full frame sensor.

This is physics, not magic. Sensor size matters if you want low noise. It doesn't matter what brand you are talking about--physics is physics.

I routinely shoot a D810 at 6400 ISO at basketball games (like 500 images per week). To get these images to be acceptable (to me) I process the RAW files into JPEGs with DxO Optics and Prime noise reduction. Each image takes 3 to 4 minutes to process--why? To quote DxO "For each pixel, more than a thousand neighboring pixels are analyzed. This vast exploration allows DxO Optics Pro to identify similar data that can serve to reconstruct image information. Several minutes may be required to do this". What point am I trying to make? A camera or phone processes an image from RAW to JPEG in nanoseconds--it cannot do that good a job!

Of course, one basic question is what standard are you trying to achieve. If you don't care about high IQ and are printing small--OK, no problem. If you are more interested in the kind of quality you can get at Daniel in NYC vs Burger King--that is something different. Both Daniel and Burger King will fill you up--one does it with more far more quality than the other.

BillKe

Definitely not pocketable! But the A6000 (and the D7100) is a while lot smaller & lighter than a D810!

berchman Loc: South Central PA

Noise used to be called grain in film days. I have seen some really great grainy captures, mostly street photographs (my main interest). If I cared to photograph the interior of Italian churches, I'd use my Nikon D800 and a tripod or bean bag. But if I'm interested in getting candid photos of Italians without experiencing an unpleasant interaction, I'd lean towards the iPhone.

BillKe

RE: "If I cared to photograph the interior of Italian churches, I'd use my Nikon D800 and a tripod "

Only one problem--they won't let you use a tripod inside the churches.

RE: "But if I'm interested in getting candid photos of Italians without experiencing an unpleasant interaction, I'd lean towards the iPhone"

In reasonable light it may work. Obviously you wll have a lot of DOF which may or may not be an issue.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

I *did* mention a bean bag. My cell phone captures are uncompressed TIFF's. DOF can be dealt with in post. I decided to explore using an iPhone for street photography after a really unpleasant encounter with a passing woman in Berlin when I used my Nikon from the waist, but the shutter was heard.

BillKe

"I *did* mention a bean bag" Yes, you did--never tried that. Actually I have one but have only used it once or twice, Maybe I'll take it to Italy in April.

"My cell phone captures are uncompressed TIFF's"--what cell phone is that? Does the iPhone have that capability?

gee4time

Yes. Use Camera Pro App.

par4fore Loc: Bay Shore N.Y.

Sony RX100 and don't look back.

Bike guy Loc: Atlanta

I asked sort of the same question on the forum about a month ago. I wanted an easy to carry camera when I go hiking and didn't want to carry the DSLR.
I bought this, Panasonic DMC-ZS40S Digital Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD (Silver)
And so far I am happy. $350 on amazon. Check it out and see all the features, you will be amazed. I especially was looking for a view finder which this one has.