Final Decision Time: A700 or TZ1?

[gafftape]

I'm down to my final decision and I'm really torn. I can't decide between the Canon A700 and the Panasonic TZ1. I'm buying the camera basicly for just family snapshots and vacation photos (nothing professional). I will probably never go in and mess with manual photo settings so the lack of manual options on the TZ1 is not a problem at all to me. I essentially want a point and shoot that has the higher quality zoom options of a midrange camera... thus the A700 and TZ1 are definitely the right cameras for me.

I have printed out pictures from the gallery and prefer the Tizzy over the A700 (pictures have sharper focus and more detail, I guess because of the image stabilizer). I also like the 10X zoom of the Tizzy over the A700's 6X, but 6X is still pretty good. However the A700 has a lot of things I prefer in the function areas: AA batteries, built in lens cover, a real view finder, slightly smaller size, faster USB support, and it shoots video in .avi (same format as my video camera).

I'm torn between slightly better image quality vs. functional convenience. Any thoughts out there to help me make this final decision? Is image stabilization so important of a feature that I should just forget about the functional annoyances? CNET says that the TZ1 has poor picture quality, I've downloaded and printed several pictures from the gallery here and they are some of the best I've seen from a small camera, what's up with that?

[Telecorder]

for anyone else to 'make'...

The OIS is important at zoom since any hand movement is amplified. AA batteries, to me is a strike against a digi since they, in my experience, tend to not last and become costly over the years. OTOH, if you're out, they're more available at a local store in a pinch then not having a spare a Li-ion.

One suggestion, if you have a lot of digital images taken/saved on your PC, is to run ExposurePlot to see whether a long zoom is really used in your normal photo taking...
http://www.cpr.demon.nl/prog_plotf.html

Good for you to do your due diligence and recognize that site reviews can be somewhat misleading... especially when it comes to the Pany Z-series of cameras. Almost all reviews critique them as too much noise yet most all Pany owners understand that its a non-issue in most all cases...

You'll probably be OK with either but, if the image quality in your opinion is better in one, go for it as that's a large part of why most of us choose one over the other...

[gafftape]

One suggestion, if you have a lot of digital images taken/saved on your PC, is to run ExposurePlot to see whether a long zoom is really used in your normal photo taking...
http://www.cpr.demon.nl/prog_plotf.html



Wow thanks, that little program is COOL. I've got about 3000 pictures and 1.25% of the time I have used over 100mm zoom while 93.2% of the time I'm below 55mm... that makes me rethink the whole thing. I've been ignoring the other compacts/subcompacts with Image Stabilizer because I thought the 3X/4X zoom was too small. Guess I better check out some of those other cameras a little more.

[Telecorder]

your needs a bit further... I shoot mostly Birds-In-Flight (Raptors et al) and, as one would expect, I'm fairly high into the maximum zoom areas...
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/Telecorder/Exposure-Plot.jpg

I use my Oly TCON1.7X converter a lot so the zoom range is understated a bit in the chart above. Since getting my FZ30, you can see the zoom % over 428 starting to show up. The above is of ~6,200 images - mostly with my FZ5.

For any one that has a current digi and is looking to upgrade/purchase a new one, the program should be utilized to see exactly what apertures/ISOs and zoom ranges your style is really geared to...

[dhcp0]

I'm leaning towads the A700 due to manual settings.

[bascom]

I prefer the VF and AA's of the A700. But I'd like to see one in a store first and try it. So far I haven't seen any A700 in a store.

[gafftape]

I prefer the VF and AA's of the A700. But I'd like to see one in a store first and try it. So far I haven't seen any A700 in a store.

I found one at a local camera shop. No sign of it in the major chain stores yet. I really liked it. To me it looks and feels almost exactly the same as the A540 which seems to be everwhere, so you can use that as a guideline. Although I'm no photo expert, I was impressed with the 6x zoom (it seemed to be able to take a pretty nice picture of the Hallmark store displays across the mall).