Who makes a digital wide angle point & shoot?

[Jeremy Z]

My wife and I will be going to Krakow and Prague this Christmas.

I'm thinking about packing light, and bringing just my Canon SD600 Elph. It is a fantastic little camera, and especially so with a tripod and the ISO set to 80. The lens is great, the screen is great, and the features are easy to get to.

However, it does have the one Achilles Heel that most point & shoot cameras have: Inadequate wide angle. 38mm equivalent. I'd like to find one with a 24mm equivalent, or I would even settle for 28mm.

Is anyone aware of such a camera?

Another thought was to buy a wide angle zoom for my Pentax K100D. The Tamron doesn't seem to be out yet, the Sigma is not reviewing well, and the Pentax is $670. (ouch) I might be able to scrounge & save for that, but then I'd have no spending money while I was there.

Last idea; this one is kind of wild: Give my wife the Elph, and I'd bring my Rollei 35 and a bunch of B&W film. That would force me to get back into the darkroom and make top-quality prints. No more losing mid-tones to jpeg format. (can't afford enough memory to shoot in RAW)

I also have a beautiful old Olympus OM1n and a good selection of lenses that is begging to be taken out. (28mm f/3.5, 135mm f/3.5, 50mm f/1.8, 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6, 75-150mm f/3.5)

To sum it up, here's what I'm trying to ask.

a) Do you know of such a wide angle point & shoot?
b) What equipment would you bring?

On the one hand, this is possibly a once-in-a-lifetime travel opportunity and it would be nice to bring my best equipment. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of being targeted by thieves and instantly made as a tourist.

 

[dizzyg44]

I can't remember the focal range off hand since I don't have it in front of me but have you looked at the canon powershot G10?

I think it was 14mm at it's widest and can go to F2.8

 

[Jeremy Z]

I hadn't considered the G10. It is big bucks, and not really a compact point & shoot any more. Maybe an older, used G series is worth considering...

For anyone else who's looking for a wide angle point & shoot, here's what I found on the mfr. websites. None go below 28mm equiv.

Pentax: Optio P70 and W60
Olympus: Stylus 9000, Stylus Tough 6000, 8000, 1030SW
Nikon: P6000, S610, S610c, 710
Canon: nothing!

 

[dwol]

Have you looked at Panasonic point and shoot cameras?? as they have wide-angle lens and rather good image quality though I'm not sure what your willing to pay.

 

[usayit]

As dwol mentioned, the Pany LX3 is their competitor to the Canon G10. It is smaller than the G10, has a hotshoe, and goes to 24mm effective focal length. I like the way it handled but I can't give you any first hand experience opinions. I've had on my want list for a while but I rarely buy anything new... still waiting.

dpreview has a couple writeups that might interest you.

 

[Dwig]

Assuming your "equivalent" is "equivalent to nn on a 35mm camera" (e.g. your old OM-1n) then:

Canon G10 has a 28mm equivalent.
Nikon P90 has a 26mm equivalent
Nikon P6000 has a 28mm equivalent
Panasonic LX-3 has a 24mm equivalent
I believe there are a couple of Samsung models with 24-28mm wide angle equiv.

Keep in mind that these equivalences are very approximate. These P&S cameras, and most such, shoot a squarer 4:3 ratio image instead of the 3:2 image shot by most DLSRs. The equivalent focal lengths are calculated by comparing the diagonal angle of view. When shooting a horizontal picture, a P&S camera will seem to have less wide angle, when considering only the angle of view along the long side of the image, than a DSLR when using "equivalent" lenses.