Digital Camera - Sightseeing

[ahazan]

Hi,

I want a digital camera that is more suitable for what i am using it for than my current Exilim s500.
I use my camera mostly to take pictures while on vacation. I take pictures mostly of landscapes, and architecture. My current Exilim is TERRIBLE for taking pictures inside, or in the dark. Some of the things i take pictures of:
Interior/Exterior of a Church
Nightime city skyline
City streets at daytime and nighttime

the dark pictures come out useless right now: blurry, grainy.

I am looking for a camera with at least a 4x optical zoom, though the more the better.
I'd love for it to be small, like the exilim, but i don't know if that's possible
4mp - 5mp is enough
image quality is EXTREMELY important. 10 on a scale of 1-10
low light quality is very important, action shots are somewhat, but not ver important
wide-angle would be nice.

any help is appreciated
Thanks,
Albert

[AlexMonro]

You might be interested in the Fuji F30. Jeff posted some preliminary shots on the Fuji forum last week which indicated it might be very low noise, and it goes up to ISO 3200! The full review will probably be along soon.

[ahazan]

hi alex,

thanks for your help.
is there any spec i can look at that would tell me the amount of noise at a specific ISO?
i'm looking for a camera with more than 3x zoom. the panasonic tz1 goes up to 1600 ISO and has a 10x optical. i just don't know the noise level @ ISO1600.
any thoughts on that camera?

Regards,
Albert

[wall]

ISO 800-1600 is practically useless on the Panasonic cams. Take a look at the reviews of the Panasonic FX01 to get an idea of why: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfx01/page6.asp

The TZ1 uses the same "pixel binning" technique to get high sensitivity shots.

[ahazan]

Wow, thanks for the heads up. all the different specs are confusing. what do i need to look for in a good low-light camera? from what i am reading the size of the CCD matters, but i am seeing mostly 1/2.5in

any suggestions?