Matthew Brennan 
, Feb 09, 2012; 03:22 a.m.
I love my D700 but can't carry it with me even with a tiny prime when riding my bike on training rides. (Road bike riding, swiftness and aerodynamics being essential - no backpacks - we are talking semi race pace training)
I completely loathe my mobile phone camera - not for lack of MP but for the fact that it can't expose a simple subject in sunlight to save itself.
I ride on many beautiful training routes and I really want to stop to take occasional photographs when the scene and the lighting are 'just so'
So I'm after any recommendations for a lightweight, very compact P&S which will fit easily into one of my jersey back zipper pockets.
Requirements are really only :-
- Compact
- Lightweight
- No need for a super long zoom, in fact, a short focal range at the wider end of things is ideal if it exists
- Fully manual exposure mode would be great but not necessary
I don't want to spend mega bucks on the latest and greatest, I just want something with ability to expose correctly and the less noise the better so ridiculously high pixel count models are out. Even older superceded models are fine so long as they fit my criteria.......
Does this sort of P&S exist?
Michael Chang 
, Feb 09, 2012; 03:30 a.m.
Matthew, you might want to take a look at the GoPro line of cameras. It's all those things and more:
http://gopro.com/
Matthew Brennan , Feb 09, 2012; 04:11 a.m.
Thankyou Michael, good lateral thinking, I had not considered video options .........
mmmm ......
Andrew Garrard 
, Feb 09, 2012; 05:39 a.m.
Michael got in first - I was going to suggest a GoPro as well. I believe they're not bad at stills, although the one I bought my wife for Christmas hasn't had a work-out yet.
My approach to this kind of problem was to go into a local supermarket and see what they were selling for under $60 (well, 40UKP). Cross-check with dpreview, obviously. I ended up with something serviceable that won't upset me too much if I drop it in a river. (My solution before that was a Voigtlander Bessa, but film processing is expensive.) If you want to spend a bit more, the go-to brand for compacts is probably Canon; the S90-S100 are all very good and smallish, and the Ixus line is tiny. But again, dpreview is your friend, and Canon aren't alone in making decent compacts.
Jose Angel 
, Feb 09, 2012; 06:31 a.m.
Another vote for the GoPro system. Specially over the bike, or on a surf board, there isn`t anything better if what you want is to to express certain feelings. And I way prefer video than still images here. You can always come back with your DSLR+tripod if you want a good still.
This woman`videos were my spark (I`m a biker, too), and I also love surf (another "sparking" video). I know their quality is quite questionable, but that`s another topic...
Carl Becker , Feb 09, 2012; 07:23 a.m.
I purchased a Fuji X100 to carry around when the size and weight of my D700 is to much.
Joel B. , Feb 09, 2012; 08:38 a.m.
My Canon S95 fits easily in my bike's saddle bag and takes great pictures. There's an S100 out now which they say is even better.
Sem Svizec , Feb 09, 2012; 09:30 a.m.
Richard Williams , Feb 09, 2012; 11:24 a.m.
Several of the models above would be a bit bulky for a jersey pocket, but as Andrew mentions the Canon IXUS line ('ELPH' in the US) includes some tiny cameras, which can weigh < 150g and give nearly nice results.
Ariel S , Feb 09, 2012; 11:48 a.m.
The GoPro is more for mounting on your bike or helmet to take video of your ride. I think that many people here blindly responded without actually reading your post. You want to stop and take photos of the landscape, if I'm understanding you correctly. In this case, the "super" point and shoots are your best bet. The Canon S100 is currently the king of pocketability while maintaining image quality. Canon is such a large company that they were able to straddle the competitors with 2 models: the jeans-pocketable S100 and the larger-but-still-small G12 (which has a viewfinder and hotshoe). The competitors are the Olympus XZ-1 and Panasonic LX5. Or, you could get yourself a small fixed-lens camera like the ricoh GRD or sigma.
