Best Pocketable Point & Shoot?

So, I never thought I would ask this question, but here I am.

I would like to purchase a point & shoot to carry in my pocket at all times. Yes, I have a cellphone (purchased a new one last week). Yes, I have a ton of other equipment including Panasonic m4/3, Canon APS-C sensor dslrs, Canon full frame dslr, Nikon APS-C sensor dslrs and a Nikon full frame dslr. I love photography and I love using my equipment as well.

I would like to use the point & shoot for all the images that I would normally use a cellphone for.

Why? In a nutshell, my "smartphone " died last week; actually the micro SD card died. It is totally, completely, absolutely unrecoverable. Yes, I tried everything (placed it into a card reader onto two different computers, attempted to create a new readable drive, tried recovery software, placed it into several older devices, etc. Nothing worked. The card is dead. My only choice is to send it to a professional data recovery company for them to remove the memory and insert it into a working card). And no, my images were not on the cloud. They were only stored on that micro SD card. Four years of memories gone.

So, I decided I want to have a good, pocketable point & shoot as it will be more reliable than any cellphone or cloud storage (imo), as I always download images I take with my cameras (too much of a pain with a cellphone).

So far I have read that folks are having dust issues with Canon point & shoots. I would like something with a bigger sensor than a cellphone, having a large range zoom lens is not a priority for me; I prefer a wide aperture, better low light performance than a cellphone with as little (ideally none) noise reduction as possible.

Any suggestions?

There aren't any real, agreed upon "bests" out there; and there are vocal minorities having issues with every camera ever released <shrug>

I would start with the camera feature search over here, https://www.dpreview.c​om/products/search/cam​eras#!, and see what options that refines you down to; then evaluate between those. Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Panasonic all have good, solid offerings for p&s style cameras; although, I'm unsure whether all of them offer sensors 'larger than cellphone sensors', aside from Canon and Nikon having their 1" sensors.

Snydremark wrote in post #19228623
There aren't any real, agreed upon "bests" out there; and there are vocal minorities having issues with every camera ever released <shrug>

I would start with the camera feature search over here, https://www.dpreview.c​om/products/search/cam​eras#!, and see what options that refines you down to; then evaluate between those. Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Panasonic all have good, solid offerings for p&s style cameras; although, I'm unsure whether all of them offer sensors 'larger than cellphone sensors', aside from Canon and Nikon having their 1" sensors.

Thanks!! I was also considering a small, thin m4/3 body (like the Olympus EPL9) with a pancake lens. Not sure if it would be small enough to be a pocket camera though.

snegron wrote in post #19228629
Thanks!! I was also considering a small, thin m4/3 body (like the Olympus EPL9) with a pancake lens. Not sure if it would be small enough to be a pocket camera though.

It depends on the size of your pockets, I suspect *personally*, I would probably go that route if in your shoes. I've hit a variety of p&s bodies over the years and every, single one of them has left me wishing I'd just skipped a camera for those trips and not spent the energy on trying to fight the camera that much. Even the great ones and enthusiast targeted ones have just left lackluster results in my hands; compared to any of my interchangeable lens options. My phone, at least, doesn't come with much expectation of control built in; so, those are generally, at least, "acceptable" in my mind when I get to looking at the results.

That finder should give you a solid stable of candidates at least.

Snydremark wrote in post #19228634
It depends on the size of your pockets, I suspect *personally*, I would probably go that route if in your shoes. I've hit a variety of p&s bodies over the years and every, single one of them has left me wishing I'd just skipped a camera for those trips and not spent the energy on trying to fight the camera that much. Even the great ones and enthusiast targeted ones have just left lackluster results in my hands; compared to any of my interchangeable lens options. My phone, at least, doesn't come with much expectation of control built in; so, those are generally, at least, "acceptable" in my mind when I get to looking at the results.

That finder should give you a solid stable of candidates at least.

Years ago I was happy with a Panasonic LX3 point & shoot I had. It performed way better than cellphones back then, but it wasn't truly "pocketable". I looked into the latest LX series (LX10), but the reviews aren't very promising.

p.s. Cargo jean pockets are the usual norm for me! ߙ

Canon unfortunately discontinued the line, but I love the Canon S110, 12MPixel. Very easily pocketable, fully automatic, and Av Tv and M. It is my choice when dSLR is just too bulky and bothersome to bring along. I started with S90, upgraded to S95, then S110. You can still get them used.

Here is a photo of one of them, next to a dSLR