Compact Cameras

Although I love my trusty Nikon D80 very dearly, it can sometimes be rather bulky to carry around with me - especially with a couple of lenses in tow. I have been pondering buying a compact camera for some time now, just so that I can always have something to hand if I want to photograph it. The trouble is, I don't really know the first thing about compacts.

I've seen a lot of good reviews about the Canon S95 (sacrilege for a dedicated Nikon user like me), but even the reduced price of £299 strikes me as a lot of money for an everyday camera. The Canon Powershot G12 is meant as an offering for "serious" users, but at £389, it's also a very "serious" investment. I could purchase a lot of kit for my D80 for that!

I'm a bit torn. When we go away on honeymoon to the Maldives, I want a small waterproof camera that I can use while snorkelling, and I certainly don't want to spend a lot of money on this. I've investigated the possibilities of underwater housing for my existing kit, but the prices are utterly ridiculous - I wouldn't see much change out of £2000 for a D80-compatible kit, which is about 3x the cost of the camera itself when it was brand new in 2006.

So, I want an underwater compact *and* a good quality "surface" compact, all for under £300. Any suggestions?

Removal of Kingsley Photographic

With some sadness, I have removed Kingsley Photographic from my recommended list of retailers. They haven't done anything specifically wrong to me, but I haven't bought anything there for ages. I now find that their prices are almost always higher than other retailers (and I'm not just comparing with online sellers), and last time I went in there looking for a flash gun, they didn't have what I wanted. A couple of years ago, I could seem to find whatever I needed and always at a competitive price from them - they were my favourite Nikon specialists.

Most recently, I was looking for a Sekonic L308s Flashmate. Typically, these retail for around £135. Park Cameras, Camera World and several others all sell at this price. Amazon sells them for £129.99, and I purchased mine from Digital Meters for £125 including postage. Kingsley Photographic, as of last week, were selling it for £149. I assume this is because of the high cost of having a store on Tottenham Court Road, but Camera World are just off Oxford St and that can't be cheap either.

Grays of Westminster are one of the highest profile Nikon specialists of all, and while their stock is always in excellent condition, I find that they almost always charge a lot more than their competitors. As such, I never shop there; plenty of other camera shops give me just as good service without charging me a premium for posh advertising. I hope Kingsley Photographic doesn't go the same way.