Recommendation for a small camera with view finder and wide angle?
I travel a lot overseas for my work - maybe 20 weeks out of the year and I go to interesting places. On weekends, I love to photo the places I visit and to do this I need a wide angle for castles, bazaars, monuments etc. I usually take my Nikon D 40 x with a Tamron 18-250 mm zoom. I love/love the pictures. But it is so heavy and bulky given the other things I carry. I hate to say it but it is getting old. I recently tried my Lumix FS15 on a trip but half the time I could not see what I was shooting in the bright daylight and "guessed" the scene. The lack of wide angle was a problem.
Can anyone recommend a camera easy to travel with that has a view finder and a wide angle feature. Price is not an issue It could be a very small DSLR but if it were a fixed lense with manual controls that would be fine too. Size does matter as do the features.
The D40 is pretty much one of the smallest DSLR's ever made
The best would be something like the fuji x100, $1200, 35mm lens, full manual controls and rangefinder style viewfinder
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...12_MP.html
another good one would be the Canon G12
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...amera.html
and the Nikon P7000
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...amera.html
if you want a bridge camera
the Canon SX30 IS
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...gital.html
Nikon P500
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...amera.html
ill even add this guy here
the Leica X1- the cream of the crop
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...amera.html
and you will need to add an optical viewfinder to it
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/...r_for.html
Maybe the smallest DSLR cameras are the Olympus ones. Look at the E-620 with whatever lens suits you.
My Nikon P7000 may fit your bill. It is a compact camera, but not a sub-compact. It does have an optical viewfinder. Its wide angle equivalent is 28mm, and does have a wide angle optional attachment if 28mm doesn't do it for you. And it does have a decent 7x zoom. The best price I found for it is at Newegg.com, which is where I bought mine - recommended. BTW, since you are a DSLR shooter, you might appreciate its full set of manual modes (PASM).
Look at the Nikon Coolpix P7000. One of the reasons I bought it is exactly the issue you are having. I cruise a lot in the Caribbean and in the bright sunny day, you can't see the viewfinder.
Here is a review I wrote on the P7000 as well as a few alternatives.
http://www.althephoto.com/cameras/p7000.php