Camera Advice for Hobby Event Photography

• ⁠Budget: $300 • ⁠Country: US • ⁠Condition: any • ⁠Type of Camera: any • ⁠Intended use: low light, cosplay • ⁠What features do you absolutely need: • ⁠Portability • ⁠Cameras you're considering: Olympus Pen E-PL3 • ⁠Cameras you already have: Canon DSLR, iPhone 11

So I take hobby photos of cosplay at conventions, and after coming back from one this weekend I’ve noticed the photo sharpness are of terrible quality this time around. Some were shot wide lens mode, which I know degrades quality as well. It’s possible that storage space or other factors may have affected the quality more than usual but it got me thinking it might be best just to use a dedicated camera. Thing is I don’t really want to lug around my DSLR anymore so I want something relatively pocketable but not too expensive because it’s just a side hobby.

I know smartphones use a lot of AI and algorithms to improve image quality, but if I can at least get a crisp photo in relatively low light, I don’t mind doing the rest of the edits myself. I also very much like taking wide lens perspective shots but I’m not sure if I can just edit photos to look like it was taken with a wide lens instead of actually needing to switch to a wide lens manually with a camera. I saw a post saying the Olympus E-PL3 was a pretty good choice for cheap, but I don’t know anything about cameras, let alone interchangeable lenses, and if I’m buying used I can’t really return anything I buy in ignorance or accident.