Your Advice On New Camera Sought

[threegee]

After selling a few toys I have a hankering for a new camera. Something with a decent lens with lots of zoooom. Also something that's not too noisy in low light, and has optical image stab.

I already have a little Panasonic DMC-LZ10 bought sub £100 a couple of years back, and an ageing Canon G1 and G2. The Pana is not too bad when you have time to set up the shot but as I say I'm looking for a decent sized light capturing lens with oodles of zoom, and capability to shoot off multiple frames to select from. The LZ10 badly disappointed me at an evening kids party last year and I missed loads of good shots, plus the ones I did get were mostly iffy. I'm am not too bothered about the size of the thing, or too picky about other matters. Also I don't think I can justify spending more than about £200 at present bargain prices.

I'm quite attracted by the Fujifilm FinePix S4200 at £130 which looks like it might fit the bill at a bargain price. But there are so many conflicting reviews - seems like some silly people are expecting a good SLR for £130, and others are delighted with the bargain. I can see the lens here will keep me happy and the price, but will the noise levels, time to first pic, and processing time?

Or.. should I bust the budget and go for a more modern Pana Lumix like the TZ30 at twice the price? They'll likely be £100 less by Christmas, and that would kind of upset me, as I likely wouldn't have had too much use out of it by then. If the FinePix doesn't quite meet the bill that would be OK at the price, but if the Lumix falls too far short of expectations I will be upset.

[Adam Hogg]

I'm quite attracted by the Fujifilm FinePix S4200 at £130 which looks like it might fit the bill at a bargain price. But there are so many conflicting reviews - seems like some silly people are expecting a good SLR for £130, and others are delighted with the bargain. I can see the lens here will keep me happy and the price, but will the noise levels, time to first pic, and processing time?

It is a good camera i have one it is a great camera you should get it.

[threegee]

Ah yes, but I've just noticed the Olympus SP-720UZ and the SP-810UZ.

They are both about the same price but the 720 looks the better bet as it does full HD video and I think is a later release. The lens on the 810 looks great but I think even with the stabilisation goodies you are going to be hard pressed to use a 36x at maximum zoom. Is the 3D a gimmick I wonder?

Good page here detailing super zooms!

[threegee]

...so... whilst I'm waiting patiently for the inevitable torrent of solid advice to roll in from the Bedders photographic lobby I've (quite literally) dusted off the ancient Canon G2 and am currently charging all three battery packs I found in a nearby box - at least two of which, quite amazingly, still seem to hold a decent charge. A few test pics look quite good in the viewfinder. It's a bit of a monster, but the glass up front is good, and the manual controls don't seem as fiddly as modern compacts or "bridge" cameras. Now, all I need is to figure a way to read CF on a modern laptop.

Maybe it was the piece I saw quite recently of David Bailey, with his simple retro gear, being interviewed in a greasy spoon East London caf'? Maybe it's the time of year? Maybe it's all those near-endless gigabytes of storage bedlington.co.uk has just come into on it's new super-fast server? Maybe I'm just going gaga? But, if the photo bug hasn't worn of in a few weeks, I might just revisit those newfangled ultra zooms, looking for bargains at the quality end.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Got a Kodak Instimatic somewhere.............

[threegee]

Got a Kodak Instimatic somewhere.............

I was once foolish enough to buy a Kodak digital camera - mind you at a huge discount. It's in the garage somewhere!

Well.. so far I have ordered from Amazon twice, and twice cancelled the order within minutes. If only people took as long choosing a government as I do choosing the latest gismo the World would be an altogether better place (but filled with maddeningly indecisive people)!

P.S. My spelling checker wants to change your "Instimatic" to Astigmatic. Maybe it too knows something about choosing cameras? But wasn't the Kodak marketing prefaced on the idea of them being Instant and automatic? And... I'd bet that Apple "owns" iMatic anyway - possibly a revolutionary new machine that SJ invented to wash clothes, before he went to meet his maker Chinese subcontractor.

[Malcolm Robinson]

I was once foolish enough to buy a Kodak digital camera - mind you at a huge discount. It's in the garage somewhere!

Well.. so far I have ordered from Amazon twice, and twice cancelled the order within minutes. If only people took as long choosing a government as I do choosing the latest gismo the World would be an altogether better place (but filled with maddeningly indecisive people)!

P.S. My spelling checker wants to change your "Instimatic" to Astigmatic. Maybe it too knows something about choosing cameras? But wasn't the Kodak marketing prefaced on the idea of them being Instant and automatic? And... I'd bet that Apple "owns" iMatic anyway - possibly a revolutionary new machine that SJ invented to wash clothes, before he went to meet his maker Chinese subcontractor.

Funnily enough I spelt it with an 'a' the first time I wrote it down then changed to an 'i'..........and my spellchecker does the same!