Summary: I'm looking for a new digital camera for adventuring and am hoping the experts here can help me out.
Me: I went through a period years back when I pursued landscape and outdoor sports photography with film and my Nikon FM for cash purposes. It soon stopped being fun, digital became too convenient, and I sold the Nikon. This year I've had more fun than ever taking my cheapo Insignia along, and have been taking my best stuff ever with a more mature eye and better material (ie better trips and more of them). A few things have gotten published. I don't envision ever being too serious about photography, but there are some things about the Insignia that drive me crazy.
My research has revealed that my perfect camera would be a Sigma DP1 that was (much) faster, more weatherproof, and less than $300. Impossible for now.
Even better would be a digital version of the only film camera I still have, my grandfather's Rollei Rangefinder. Make that digital with a fixed ~24mm lens and I'd be very pleased.
So….
Things that are mandatory:
-fast, both w/r/t startup and especially w/r/t between shots, and most especially w/r/t shutter lag
-easy and quick to use manual setting, or at least exposure priority
-small
Things that would be really good:
-waterproof or darn close
-decent macro setting
-big aperture
-uses AAs
-full manual focus
Things I don't care about:
-zoom
-flash
-face recognition, auto-compensation, auto-steady, etc
Any thoughts would be most appreciated.
