New camera required - advice please!!

carpmaster

carpmaster

carpmaster

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Hi

I've had a Fujifilm S5500 for the past 3 years or so, and recently it was stolen so I am looking to replace it. I mainly use the camera for my work (pictures of chimneys / aerials etc so high zoom & image stability required) and also use it for normal family stuff.

I'm not confident enough or dedicated enough to get into the whole SLR vibe, and I'd just lose any extra lenses etc so I think a "bridge" camera would suffice?

Budget is anything up to around £300, but if I can get a camera is good, has decent optical zoom (10x or more) and comes recommended for about £100 or so then that's even better.

Battery life is important also. The camera gets left with my work equipment for days / weeks without getting charged!

What do you recommend?
 
S9600? can be had for around £200, bit of a step up from the s5500, 9mp with 10x optical zoom. takes aa batteries so you could buy a decent set of rechargeable batteries for use with the camera.
 
Thanks for the reply. I'd hoped to move away from Fujifilm actually. Old camera had some annoying problems and I'd quite like a change in manufacturer anyway.

No more advice for me? I don't like buying without some recommendations.
 
canon powershot g9? what was wrong with the fuji? if zoom is important i'd get the s9600 tbh.
 
The Fuji didn't have image stabilisation, and was a total nightmare to get rid of camera shake most of the time. I can't carry a tripod around either. Looks like the new S9600 doesnt have image stabilisation either.

I quite like the idea of the Panasonic FZ18, but there have been some bad comments about it's poor sensor, letting an otherwise superb camera down.
 
I've now narrowed it down to the

Sony DSC-H7
Sony DSC-H9
Panasonic DMC-FZ18

I think the one to go for is the Panny. 18x zoom, image stabilisation, and from the further reviews I've seen since I commented earlier, it seems that it does very well so looks like it might be this one.
 
I think the S9600 or FZ50 would be better choices although the FZ50 is a little more expensive. I am currently deciding which to get now and I believe I will go with the S9600 due to the Panasonics poor performance at high ISO (this applies across their entire range afaik).

Out of the two the Olympus would appear to be slightly superior although it's very close.
 
Raikiri said:
I think the S9600 or FZ50 would be better choices although the FZ50 is a little more expensive. I am currently deciding which to get now and I believe I will go with the S9600 due to the Panasonics poor performance at high ISO (this applies across their entire range afaik).

Out of the two the Olympus would appear to be slightly superior although it's very close.
Click to expand...

The FZ50 seems to be a worse spec & more expensive than the FZ18, apart from the fact it's 10mp rather than 8mp which is neither here nor there for most people. Why do you think the FZ50 is a better choice?
 
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