My wife and daughter are taking an Alaskan sea and land cruise next nest May. We have an R5 and a couple of R7s and lot's of lenses but they each would rather have a purse/pocket point and shoot camera for this trip. Any suggestions for a couple cameras in the 5 to 6 hundred range?
I recently used the Canon G1 X III and Sony RX100 VII. The Sony is far more pocketable. The Canon is a bit easier to grip and has a hotshoe. Battery life was sometimes limiting on the Canon.
You might look into the Olympus (OM) Tough cameras. A new TG-7 version just came out so you may find some deals on the previous TG-6.
The Lumix G100 with a kit or pancake lens is surprisingly small. Used copies are available ~$600.
I bought a Canon G5 X Mark II for that purpose, and it's served me well. Compact, well made, nice ergonomics, has a (pop-up) viewfinder, and a 24-120mm equivalent range.
Start by deciding what they need from a camera that they cannot get using their smartphones. I bought the Panasonic DC-LX100M2 with it very large 1-inch sensor and ease of making changes to settings without needing to rely on menus. It provides a full frame zoom range of 24-72mm at f/1.4~f/2.8 so great in low light situations. It sells currently for $598 at B&H.
The next step up is something like the Panasonic Lumix GX85 with its FMT 4/3 size sensor and the kit with the camera and the 12-32mm and 45-100mm lenses and a carry case sells for $648 at B&H.
I don't think in such situation that many people appreciate that they can select one body and one lens for shore excursions and a larger and longer telephoto lens to use from the boat(s). A small sling bag can make is easy to manage a camera like the GX85 and two small lenses without difficult.
