My first ever digital camera was a Kodak 1 megapixel point-and-shoot my aunt bought for me from Best Buy. This was in year 2000. 3 years after, I bought a prosumer camera: the Canon Powershot S1IS. This introduced me to the world of photography and in just about 3 months, I started to drool over getting my first DSLR.

In 2003, Canon came out with an entry-level DSLR; the 300D. I was dead set in buying this camera and started to save. Since it took several paychecks to afford the camera, I had to wait for months. Lo and behold... came the Nikon D70! It was named camera of the year, and I could not make my mind which to choose between the two cameras. In the end, I decided to go with Nikon because it had the black body and it wasn’t as plasticky as the 300d. The rest was history. I’ve been a Nikon shooter ever since and have built my lens arsenal around it.

Today, I am in a reverse situation. I have a DSLR and I am looking to buy a point and shoot! I never bothered to buy a P&S, since I ditched my canon powershot S1IS. I now realized that it’s not convenient to lug around a heavy camera with all my lenses all the time. I need a P&S to capture everyday moments.



I’m choosing among the Samsung EX1/TL500, Panasonic GF-1, or Olympus E-PL2. The last two are micro-four thirds capable of interchangeable lenses. The first is a compact prosumer much like the G11, and also the cheapest compared to the other two.

My beef with the micro 4/3 is that it doesnt have portability and flexibility. It does provide superior IQ compared to the Samsung but it’s not as flexible as the TL500 in that you have to buy lenses to do macro, zoom, etc. It no longer becomes portable if you have to carry those lenses every time. It defeats the purpose of not having to lug around a big-ass DSLR.

With all the positive reviews of the TL500, I am slightly leaning towards buying it. Meanwhile, my friend was kind enough to lend me her Leica DLUX 4 and a GF1 for a test drive. This should give me a rough idea of how the 4/3 will compare against the p&s. We’ll see.