BODY: I understand that this has been discussed many times and I have looked through most of them. But I still cannot come to a solid conclusion to which is the smallest P&S camera. Apart from size, the quality is also important. Can someone tell me what are the cameras out on the market that I should consider? At the moment, I am looking at Elph Jr. but still not sure whether it is the best out there for this category.

The second part of my question: since size (and quality) is what I am looking for, should I look into digital P&S? If so, what are the strong competitors on the market? At the moment, I am considering Canon S100 or S20 (simply because of the 3.3megapixels); but after surfing the net for a while, the amount of choices confused me (Fujifilm, Olympus, etc.). Can someone recommend something for me?

Thank you all in advance.

Calvin

-- Calvin Lo (calvinlo@pacific.net.hk), July 18, 2000

Answers

Are you wanting snap shots or images for the web or to have your own digital darkroom for enlargements? If you want to have 4x6 prints for an album, go with a film camera. I still prefer the smaller 35mm cameras to APS. There is no comparison in the picture quality, and you can make high quality 8X10's and larger, which APS doesn't do well. The e Olympus Stylus Epic is small and high quality and inexpensive, so is the Fuji dl super mini. These are full frame 35mm cameras. Digital is fun, but they ares till working out the details as far as memory storage and getting the images into your computer. Its not as simple of a process to get right as they'd like you to believe.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), July 18, 2000.

High quality in the smallest and the most easily pocketable size is the Olympus Stylus Epic - about $80. I also have an Elph which may be smaller, but is heavier than the Epic. APS is NOT for slides or enlargements. COnsumer digital still sucks.

- Chris

-- Chris Hay (j_c_hay@hotmail.com), July 18, 2000.

Widely acknowledged to be among the best (small size, build quality and optical quality of lens) 35mm format p&s camera: the Ricoh GR1 or the updated model, the GR1s (yes, I have one--the old model).

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), July 24, 2000.