The Perfect Point-and-Shoot

I think that any camera person is a de facto gadget person.  If you get into this hobby seriously there is a ton of STUFF you want to buy to make your photos better – lenses, flashes, tripods, lighting, the cameras themselves, then bags to hold it all.  With the age of digital cameras there is also the compulsion to get a new camera on a regular basis as technology improves with better megapixels, etc., etc.  Sometimes I think it would be nice to strip it all down and just carry one camera that would do what I wanted. This would have to be a special camera, though.  If I could design the perfect point-and-shoot, here’s what I would have on it…

• Small , but not too much – something the size of the current Nikon S series would be nice.  Too small and you can’t get it on a tripod.
• Rugged – bump proof, scratch proof, and, oh yeah, water proof to 3 meters.
• Highest megapixel range available – I know this is a moving target, and that megapixels aren’t everything, but might as well start at the top.
• Ability to shoot RAW as well as JPEG
• Wide ISO range – lows down to at least 100 and up to 3200 with little to no noise would be nice.
• Manual controls for aperture, shutter speed, and white balance
• Wide focal length – 18-120 would be good.  Wider would be more important than telephoto because it would be hard to hold a camera that small still enough for a long lens.
• Vibration Reduction
• Built-in GPS for automatic geotagging
• Video mode with 720p available
• WiFi Enabled
• 4 inch LCD screen for preview
• Touch screen with variable focus (this is been nice on my S70)
• Speed multi shot and interval shot modes
• Long battery life
• Available external power source
• Oh, and all this for around $100

See, I’m not asking for much.  There are some options on current cameras that just don’t interest me.  I never use all those automatic scene modes, and facial recognition isn’t that important to me.  I also am not interested in in-camera editing.  I’d prefer to do that on a larger computer screen where I can see everything.

I’ve seen a few cameras that come close to this list, but haven’t found one with all of this.  Who knows? If I can find a camera like this, I might forsake my DSLR for this jewel.  Nah!  I think I’m too much of a gadget guy.