ultra-zoom for about € 450

[darklite]

Hello,

My family is considering purchasing a digital camera. It will be used for making holiday pictures and perhaps for some amateur photography. It should be good enough to last a long time (both feature-wise and build quality-wise).

The camera should be comfortable to hold (not to small). The Ultra-zoom models seem to offer good features for their price. Unfortunately, my father's hands shake quite badly, and thus a image stabilisation feature is necessary (perhaps even at low zoom?). Most, if not all ultra-zoom cameras seem to offer full manual control, which is nice if we want to do a little more with the camera (as a hobby).

I assume 4 Mpixel should be enough, we're not planning on making poster-size prints. Perhaps even a 3 Mpixel model is adequate? The presence of a movie-mode is not important, as it's limited by the little storage room available on memory cards anyway (we're planning on spending 50€ on a memory card, which should buy us some 512MB if I'm correct).

Based on reviews I read on this site (great!) and others, I think the best options are the Panasonic Lumix FZ10, FZ15 or FZ20, however they are quite pricy. Other options are the Canon PowerShot S1 IS, but that's "only" 3Mpixel, the Kodak EasyShare DX6490 and the Olympus C-765 and C-770 (no stabilisation). The Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3 is a bit behind on image quality, so is probably not an option.

Are there any other options to consider? Which would be a good choice? Any advice is welcome.

Thanks,
darklite

[Jim Last]

In respect of value for money the Panasonics rock :D Down to personal pref which one FZ10, FZ15 or FZ20. Most of the Panasonic thread should help to guide you but I like the FZ20 I got a couple of weeks ago.

[barbarians]

Hello,

My family is considering purchasing a digital camera. It will be used for making holiday pictures and perhaps for some amateur photography. It should be good enough to last a long time (both feature-wise and build quality-wise).

The camera should be comfortable to hold (not to small). The Ultra-zoom models seem to offer good features for their price. Unfortunately, my father's hands shake quite badly, and thus a image stabilisation feature is necessary (perhaps even at low zoom?). Most, if not all ultra-zoom cameras seem to offer full manual control, which is nice if we want to do a little more with the camera (as a hobby).

I assume 4 Mpixel should be enough, we're not planning on making poster-size prints. Perhaps even a 3 Mpixel model is adequate? The presence of a movie-mode is not important, as it's limited by the little storage room available on memory cards anyway (we're planning on spending 50€ on a memory card, which should buy us some 512MB if I'm correct).

Based on reviews I read on this site (great!) and others, I think the best options are the Panasonic Lumix FZ10, FZ15 or FZ20, however they are quite pricy. Other options are the Canon PowerShot S1 IS, but that's "only" 3Mpixel, the Kodak EasyShare DX6490 and the Olympus C-765 and C-770 (no stabilisation). The Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3 is a bit behind on image quality, so is probably not an option.

Are there any other options to consider? Which would be a good choice? Any advice is welcome.

Thanks,
darklite

Hello

I'm also in tje similar situation. (looking for camera with extended zoom)
I managed to find a seemingly excellent camera on the internet called PENTAX MX,

[barbarians]

Hello,

My family is considering purchasing a digital camera. It will be used for making holiday pictures and perhaps for some amateur photography. It should be good enough to last a long time (both feature-wise and build quality-wise).

The camera should be comfortable to hold (not to small). The Ultra-zoom models seem to offer good features for their price. Unfortunately, my father's hands shake quite badly, and thus a image stabilisation feature is necessary (perhaps even at low zoom?). Most, if not all ultra-zoom cameras seem to offer full manual control, which is nice if we want to do a little more with the camera (as a hobby).

I assume 4 Mpixel should be enough, we're not planning on making poster-size prints. Perhaps even a 3 Mpixel model is adequate? The presence of a movie-mode is not important, as it's limited by the little storage room available on memory cards anyway (we're planning on spending 50€ on a memory card, which should buy us some 512MB if I'm correct).

Based on reviews I read on this site (great!) and others, I think the best options are the Panasonic Lumix FZ10, FZ15 or FZ20, however they are quite pricy. Other options are the Canon PowerShot S1 IS, but that's "only" 3Mpixel, the Kodak EasyShare DX6490 and the Olympus C-765 and C-770 (no stabilisation). The Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3 is a bit behind on image quality, so is probably not an option.

Are there any other options to consider? Which would be a good choice? Any advice is welcome.

Thanks,
darklite

Hello

I'm also in the similar situation. (looking for camera with extended zoom)
I managed to find a seemingly excellent camera on the internet called PENTAX MX, or PENTAX MX4. These cameras have 10* digital and 10*optical zoom (total zoom 100*). The price about £300-400.

Bye,
Barbarians

[Jim Last]

You can get a FZ20 from Cameras 2 U (http://www.cameras2u.com) for £339.98

I am always abit worried about less know internet companies so I went into my local Jessops and took with me a printout of the price from cameras2u...and they matched it :D

[D70FAN]

Hello

I'm also in the similar situation. (looking for camera with extended zoom)
I managed to find a seemingly excellent camera on the internet called PENTAX MX, or PENTAX MX4. These cameras have 10* digital and 10*optical zoom (total zoom 100*). The price about £300-400.

Bye,
Barbarians

Good luck getting a stabile picture beyond about 6X optical zoom (digital zoom is an in camera crop, so you loose considerable resolution beyond about 2X at 5MegaPixels).

Good luck.