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Old Nov 26, 2007 | 05:13 PM
  #13  
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MrFatbooty
Wannabe yuppie
 
Joined: Dec 2000
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From: Madison, WI
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When you say you need a camera that can accept "magnetic wide angle" lenses, I assume you mean the kind of wide-angle adapters that attach in front of the typical compact camera not-very-wide zoom lens to give you an actual wide angle. I also seem to recall something about being a real estate agent, so I assume you need something for shooting interiors.

There are a couple cameras out there which have a real genuine wide angle lens (24mm equiv on 35mm film) built right in, and hotshoes for external flash like Rick mentioned. Namely the Kodak P880 which is pretty much discontinued but you should be able to find one on ebay for pretty cheap. I have one so I'm biased but it's pretty kickass for a compact camera, as long as the operator knows a thing or two about taking pictures. Plus it has a real TTL flash hotshoe for use with the Kodak P20 flash so you can get a more powerful but still automatic flash.

Otherwise there's the Ricoh GX100 which is more compact than the P880's mini wannabe SLR shape and also has a 24mm wide end to its zoom. It's 10 megapixels compared to the P880's 8 megapixels, but the lens on the P880 is overall sharper so you get somewhat better resolution from the P880. The GX100 also has a hotshoe but it's a plain "dumb" hotshoe that just has a flash trigger contact so you need to use an old-skool quasi-auto flash like a Vivitar 283. This requires a bit more exposure work on your end and with the smaller camera + bigger flash combo than the P880+P20 it's a bit awkward.

If you want something truly pocketable there's the Kodak V705 which is a little Elph-sized dealie but it has two lenses, one of which is a 23mm wide angle. Image quality and manual options are somewhat lower than the others and there's no hotshoe, but such is the case with any camera sized like a pack of cigs.

*edit* the Nikon Coolpix 8400 just came to mind as well but it's been discontinued for longer than the P880, similar feature set with not as long of a lens on the tele end, kind of in between the GX100 and P880 in size, TTL hotshoe.

Last edited by MrFatbooty; Nov 26, 2007 at 05:15 PM.
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