The best camera…?

I've got cameras costing from £1,000 to £5,000 but the best camera is always the one you've got with you at the time.

A couple of months ago I bought a point-and-shoot (Panasonic DMC-TZ5) to live in my jacket pocket so I don't need to carry a bulky DSLR around with me all the time. Last week, purely by chance, I 'snapped' a confrontation between a forestry worker and a trespassing motorcyclist, and the photo was used for the top story on the front page of this week's Ross-shire Journal.

The photo was done on full auto mode. Literally point-and-shoot. 

And this isn't the first time the TZ5 has earned its keep. Shortly after getting it I had an unusual request from a company in the south of England, to do some photos of houses on a nearby estate, up here in the north of Scotland. To avoid attracting too much attention with a big DSLR, I did the photos with the TZ5. As a matter of principle I told the client that I'd done them with a point-and-shoot, and I explained why, and they were happy with the quality so it's all good.

The TZ5 was bought for fun with no intention of making money from it, but is is now nearly 1/3 of the way towards paying for itself.