Paddy's Grama wrote:
Wow!!! I knew this was the place to ask for help, but your responses have been incredible. Thank you all for taking the time to advise me.
I am checking out all the various suggestions, and some, including the bridge camera, I had never heard of before. Your comments and suggestions are forcing me to re-define more exactly what am I looking for in a camera.
... As the sole driver of our Class B RV, I want a simple automatic camera that I can hand to my husband to catch a scene while I am driving.
... I don’t need to be changing lenses anymore. There is no room in this van to store them, let alone spread things out on a mini table to change them. I need one good lens.
... I am not into macro at this time. A good single zoom will be adequate.
... I enjoy taking short videos of my grandchildren, but I think any camera would be adequate for my purposes.
... I now realize that physical camera size really does matter. I want a camera that I will tend to pick up and take with me. It won’t be the size of an iPhone, but I hope I can find something good enough that won’t be too, too big.
I am not an expert, far from it. You have given me some wonderful, varied suggestions.
Thank you.
Wow!!! I knew this was the place to ask for help,... (
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The only system that I have been able to truely successfully shoot from a moving vehicle was the one I took with me to Germany. It was my E-M1 mrII with the rented new 12-100mm f4 Pro IS lense. It is not impossible to shoot with other cameras from a moving vehicle, just much more difficult. My system that went to Germany was a body, two lenses (covering 14mm to 200mm in 35mm terms), two flashes, a filter, and spare battery. This all fit in an approximate 6" X 11" X 12" bag and weighted just under 7 pounds for the bag and all the equipment in it. The only problem for you is it is well over your $500 budget . Even the E-10 plus the 12-100mm lense is in the neighborhood of $1700 (on sale at this time). But that system would meet nearly meet all your requirements including macro. You may have to settle for a bridge camera, or other style entry level camera, and dial back some of the want requirements. If the requirements are such that you need them, you will have to increase the money you are willing to spend to get them.