I swapped my daily driver for a cheap dump phone from Amazon and it has been great. The only thing I miss is having a good camera with me to take pics once in a while.

What can I use as a solution to that when I don't carry a smartphone anymore?

A decade old point and shoot is a good option.

I’ve got an Olympus m4/3 mirrorless with a pancake lens and it’s pretty easy to carry every day.

Pick up a used Ricoh gr

Another vote for the Ricoh GR. The most pocketable high quality camera I can think of, and very quick to fire— that’s one of their famous features as a “street camera.” I absolutely love mine.

Nokia had some pre-android era phones with symbian that had a monster cameras. Maybe you can find one of those.

The recommendations for the Ricoh are solid, I've seen pics taken on one, and have snapped a few for the person that owns it. Simple to use, plenty good quality, and not too big to make it practical to carry all the time.

That last one is the real kicker. There's a saying that gets beat to death in photography of any level: the best camera is the one you have with you. It's why phone cameras have made so many more pics than is even sane. We carry them almost everywhere, and they're quick to deploy.

Mind you, any pocket friendly camera from maybe the last ten years or so is going be at least usable. The Ricoh is just one of the more reliable ones and doesn't sacrifice much in the way of the hardware. You can tell a difference between that and a full size slr with a decent lens, but you can also tell the difference between it and a phone cam.

Edit: I will also say that used is necessary for most people, they ain't cheap.

Have a look at the Fuji x100. I dunno if it's too big but I find the focal length and f stop more suitable and people shots are awesome

Second hand Leica D-Lux ?

i bought a used sony a6700 with a sigma 18-50mm for that very reason. Not that pocketable but small enough and i actually shoot more because i usually keep it in my hand when i am travelling. An the creative styles + white balance bias means, i barely ever manually edit the raws and i can transfer them wirelessly to my phone and sync them automatically with my immich server.

I have anothet compact ttartisan 25mm f/2.0 as a fun/more compact lens for when i want it a little more pocketable.

Probably one of the best purchases i’ve ever made.

I had the same problem but I won't be much help, I went full tilt and bought a Fujifilm XT4 and an 18-55mm lens for it. Need a whole ass bag for it but honestly, no regerts.

nokia 808 and lumia 1020? i believe. they're kinda overpriced these days, not worth it unless you find one cheap

i use a rx100 m1, takes a while for its popout lens to come out but it's decent otherwise.

can i ask how you handle navigation?

I guess it depends on your driving habits but I have most of my metro area mapped in my head and I can get roughly from one place to another without directions. For new places I’ll usually look at where it is on a map before I leave and I can navigate mentally. I usually only miss traffic tracking because I’ll get stuck in traffic I could’ve easily avoided with gps apps.

Any small.cameras with optical Zoom? Trying to get away from my Samsung Galazy ultra.

https://www.fujifilm.com/us/en/consumer/instax/cameras/pal2

I think this is pretty cool and minimal.

sony a6700

500g and $2300 new omg

ive been thinking about getting a small travel camera but i guess im sticking with my canon d1000

Brain

The weight isn’t all that bad. I’ve been running around with it all day on vacations and wasn’t bothered by it. The size imho is more important. I paid ~1400€ used. All the cameras with interchangeable lens systems are in similar price ranges unfortunately. The more compact ones are even more expensive.
There is a very compact sony one with integrated zoom lens i forgot the name of that goes for more than 2k€
The ricoh gr iv is similarly priced and has a fixed zoom lens and no EVF and in sunny daylight no evf is a no go imho. The displays on cameras are usually much darker than smartphone displays so you really need an evf.

If you want to safe a bit of money you can go for the a6400. it has a couple of compromises but isn’t all that much worse purely for photography.

But yeah cameras are expensive. But they last you much longer than smartphones and the retail price is fairly stable. There is 10 year old ones that still go for a significant chunk of the original price on the used market

I was able to get a really good deal on a second-hand a6700 that seemed barely used when I got it. It's definitely not small enough to put in a pocket and it's still too expensive not to baby. It's amazing for video and I love the sony color science (controversial). I use it for work as well as if I feel the need for media that has more flexibility in post.

For "I'd like to remember this event" type photos where resolution and accuracy aren't the priority, I usually just bring along a disposable-looking plastic 35mm camera I can just toss in a bag and hand it to friends/family if they want a picture. Unfortunately, a lot of these kinds of cameras seem to be inconsistent. I had a Kodak Ektar camera and the film advance wheel broke within a week. I also have a Ricoh RZ-900 I got from the thrift store and a bag of expired unused fujifilm rolls for $20. It's not a great camera (and I suspect it will die soon since the motors sound very bad), but it works for what I need it to do.

I find once you know traffic patterns, picking your own path is generally the same or faster. All the traffic mapping apps tend to send people down the same core routes even if they aren't actually the best/fastest. Tons of streets are completely ignored by mapping apps.

For those that do need maps, an old Garmin, or sometimes cars have built in maps that can be updated. Even old maps are generally useful unless you live in a city that redoes their entire road network every 20 years.

If you don't mind having a little extra bulk when traveling, maybe picking up a cheap digital camera from a thrift store or pawn shop wouldn't be the worst. Hell, you might even get lucky enough to get a camera that has video recording function as well, if you're lucky.

I know not everyone wants bulk, but I'm sure there are newer models that ain't bulky. Other than that, no clue what else I can say since there ain't many other options if you don't feel like having a smart phone/tablet.

I'm pretty familiar with the city I live in. Maybe will look up the route before I go if needed, but I have not had to do that often.