Ok, camera people — if you were going to recommend a camera that’s 1) lightweight enough to hang around my neck a lot of the time and 2) best value for quickly taking high quality digital shots, what would it be?

@ablerism I have a couple of old Canons that I’m sure are not what you’re looking for, but back when I was close to going all in on camera stuff I talked to several who were really happy with a Nikon Z fc w/ a 16-50mm or 24-50mm collapsible lens.

@ablerism I’ve been using a Nikon DSLR for years and love them. At some point, I will switch to the Z line. For wandering around the wilderness, I use a Tamron 16-300 zoom lens, because it goes from mountain-scapes to bird closeups in a heart beat.

I have a Google Pixel pro phone with 5x zoom, and I use it when I have to, but I do not enjoy the experience much.

One of the great things about the Nikon dSLRs is that they turn on instantly and use very little power, so they are almost always ready when you need them. I do not know for sure if the Z line is as good in this regard, but I would expect Nikon to have worked hard at it.

@ablerism Ricoh GR. Hard to find in stock. But I did my honeymoon 11 years ago with that and a film camera. Most days just the Ricoh. It’ll fit in your pocket, but the sensor size is large so great quality images. The 28mm focal length is limiting, but only until you learn to work around it.

Failing that, any of the Fuji X100 series are great.

@lukemperez @cliffordbeshers @tinyroofnail Thank you all! Appreciate it.

@ablerism I assume you have a phone with a camera so what would you like out of a standalone camera that you can’t get (or what do you hope a standalone camera could get you)? For example, if you want to be able to capture things that are far away, it would be different from a quick pocket camera with a fixed lens. I’d probably recommend either a fujifilm camera (great colours) or sony (great auto focus, the skin colour can be a bit off) as both have lots of lenses and some good options. I have a nikon Z50 which is good, but sony and fuji both have more lenses at good prices IMO.

@ChrisJWilson Thank you!

@johnchandler thank you!

@ablerism what did you decide on?

@johnchandler I can’t believe this, but a friend offered me his Leica D LUX 7, because he’s heading more toward analog.