# Small camera for active kid



## Too_Many_Hobbies (Jun 3, 2014)

Hello all,

Just looking for some advice on a small camera setup for shooting action. What I would like:
•	Small camera that I can put in a coat pocket or very small camera bag
•	The best image quality I can get for the small form factor
•	Very speedy autofocus and frame rate
•	Good video quality with continuous autofocus
•	Ideally a viewfinder

My objective is to have something on me that is better than my smartphone so I can take good video and action shots of my daughter. We are expecting and I know how hard it is to get out the door with just one toddler + all the required gear. If I have my DSLR gear and no diaper bag the wife is not happy ;D. I’d love to be able to shoot animals/birds/etc., but I would probably need an ILC and another lens which = cost and my wife will kill me.
Here is what I have/tried:

Canon S100 – not bad, but too slow and I don’t care for the shooting experience (no view finder, small, but not great for holding). Also video is pretty poor and I wouldn’t mind better IQ. But it is nice and small...

EOS M – I did update the firmware but I still considered it to be too slow to lock focus and it hunted too much in video. It really hurt selling this as I did enjoy it and it was a huge bang for the buck, but I sold a bunch of stuff to get the 70d and this made the list. I’ve been wanting Canon to come out with something like the Sony a6000 in the EOS-M line but it doesn’t seem like that is going to happen.

Canon 70d – technically my wife’s, but I probably use it more than she does. I should probably figure out some sort of external mic for it as the lens is too noisy and the sound quality is bad. Basically I’d like something smaller than this with the same features.

Canon 6d – my favorite camera ever and what I shoot most often with. The problem is no continuous autofocus in video and obviously the autofocus system and frame rate does not lend itself to action/wildlife shots. I love the IQ and low-light performance, though, and I am really used to it, except the stupid zoom which is different than the other cameras I've had (7D, 5D Mark II, and now 70D).

I’ve been thinking about the new Sony RX100 III or RX10 but they are really pricy for me. I typically buy used or refurbished to cut cost as this is just a hobby. I also loved the idea of the EOS M so I could use my existing lenses, but it just didn’t work out for me.

So any other recommendations? Do you think Canon will be introducing something to compete with Sony’s offerings? I can certainly wait as I have cameras I can shoot with – really in the surveying the marketplace/research phase right now (and I'll need the time and persistence to convince my wife that this is something we absolutely need and I don't know how we can continue without it.)

Thanks for reading this long post!


----------



## Dylan777 (Jun 3, 2014)

Too_Many_Hobbies said:


> Hello all,
> 
> Just looking for some advice on a small camera setup for shooting action. What I would like:
> •	Small camera that I can put in a coat pocket or very small camera bag
> ...



Your voice is very important ;D: http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=21150.msg401192#msg401192


----------



## Too_Many_Hobbies (Jun 3, 2014)

Alright - I just sent in my $2,000. I can't wait until that moose call from the EOS-1D W get's put into my new EOS M!


----------



## mackguyver (Jun 3, 2014)

My brother uses a GoPro (latest one) and the stills and video he takes of my niece & nephew always impress me. You can't beat it for the money, and you can always strap the camera to your kid for some really funny videos


----------



## Too_Many_Hobbies (Jun 3, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> My brother uses a GoPro (latest one) and the stills and video he takes of my niece & nephew always impress me. You can't beat it for the money, and you can always strap the camera to your kid for some really funny videos



Good point - my mother-in-law actually got me one for Christmas after seeing it on 60 minutes. The last time I wanted to mount it on my seatpost so I could shoot video of my daughter being trailed behind me on a WeeHoo. After I was all ready to go I turn it on only to realized I left the micro-SD card back home in my computer. The time before that the battery was completely dead. D'oh! I'm not used to the interface and haven't played with it nearly enough.

I am also really impressed with the video quality. I did mount it to my daughter's 3-wheeler and I shot video hand-held with it too. Haven't actually tried it for stills. Ok, I have something I need to play with more this weekend. Thanks for the reminder!!


----------



## Deleted member 91053 (Jun 3, 2014)

No advice - I just misread the post and it reminded me of my, then, 3 year old grand nephew running around with my 1D4 and 24-105 at Christmas a couple of years ago. The camera was as big as his chest and he found it VERY heavy! He got some cracking shots though!


----------



## Too_Many_Hobbies (Jun 4, 2014)

johnf3f said:


> No advice - I just misread the post and it reminded me of my, then, 3 year old grand nephew running around with my 1D4 and 24-105 at Christmas a couple of years ago. The camera was as big as his chest and he found it VERY heavy! He got some cracking shots though!



Awesome. She doesn't like my 6D as she tries to swipe at the screen to look at the next picture and she says with a pout "it's not working."


----------



## ajfotofilmagem (Jun 4, 2014)

A pocket camera with fast autofocus and frame rate? : Nothing in Canon land. :-\ You will have to look for sensors micro 4/3 or smaller to achieve fast AF (actually wider DOF). Some reviews praised the AF of Nikon 1 V3 camera.


----------



## wickidwombat (Jun 4, 2014)

Too_Many_Hobbies said:


> johnf3f said:
> 
> 
> > No advice - I just misread the post and it reminded me of my, then, 3 year old grand nephew running around with my 1D4 and 24-105 at Christmas a couple of years ago. The camera was as big as his chest and he found it VERY heavy! He got some cracking shots though!
> ...



Hahaha the number of times i do that on my 5Dmk3 is well er embarrassing... especially when i'm using it side by side with the eos M

but honestly for what you are looking for the sony a6000 is pretty good just shoot raw because the jpgs suck bigtime especially at high iso


----------



## Ian_of_glos (Jun 4, 2014)

I bought my daughter a Canon 100D with the 40mm F2.8 pancake lens for her 6th birthday and she loves it. It is not too difficult for her to use, and the pancake lens means it is a very small package overall. Also as it is a proper EOS DSLR we can easily add more lenses later as she develops. Occasionally I even let her borrow some of my expensive L lenses. It is probably too big to fit in a pocket, but even so it is small and light and she has no trouble holding it securely to frame each shot.


----------



## Lamora (Jun 4, 2014)

I can highly recommend a GX7. Small form factor good controls from iauto (green) mode to manual, good lenses and the kit lens is actually quite usable. EVF, superb video (better than my 5d MIII SOOC) with usable AF, superb AF in stills mode and last but not least, you can swipe the screen to look at the next picture. ;D


----------



## Deleted member 91053 (Jun 4, 2014)

Too_Many_Hobbies said:


> johnf3f said:
> 
> 
> > No advice - I just misread the post and it reminded me of my, then, 3 year old grand nephew running around with my 1D4 and 24-105 at Christmas a couple of years ago. The camera was as big as his chest and he found it VERY heavy! He got some cracking shots though!
> ...



!


----------



## Menace (Jun 4, 2014)

This is my 7 year old - he loves this combo and gets some lovely images.


----------



## wickidwombat (Jun 4, 2014)

Menace said:


> This is my 7 year old - he loves this combo and gets some lovely images.



hahah great shot!


----------



## CanNotYet (Jul 23, 2014)

Have you had a look at the G16? It at least claims to have around 6 fps with continuous AF, it has a viewfinder, it is nice and small(-ish), good AF overall, and continuous AF when filming.

It seems to tick all your boxes?


----------



## dgatwood (Jul 23, 2014)

johnf3f said:


> No advice - I just misread the post and it reminded me of my, then, 3 year old grand nephew running around with my 1D4 and 24-105 at Christmas a couple of years ago. The camera was as big as his chest and he found it VERY heavy! He got some cracking shots though!



Was that the lens cracking or the body?


----------

