Anyone recommend a bridge camera?

manic111

manic111

manic111

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I want to get into photography and need a camera to start with-I don't even have a compact at the moment (it broke while I was travelling) so I figure I may as well buy a decent bridge over another compact.

In an ideal world I don't want to spend more than about £200, but obviously if there is something that would cost a little more and is worth the price difference I would go for it.

Any recommendations?
 
Do you mean the FZ range? I can't find the PZ range anywhere...

EDIT: Yea, I had heard that the Fuji S9600 was meant to be very good. Is this the case?
 
You're right, I mean Fz. I have one myself and it is *fantastic*; very flexible, without being over-bearing. When you want Point + Shoot, it does that fantastically too.
 
Ah good stuff, cheers Yantorsen. Did you go for the Fuji in the end? From the reviews it looks like a nice camera.

Jimps, which FX do you have? I've seen the FX8 for £155 which looks like a great deal-wondering if the Fuji is worth an extra £50.
 
Another vote for Panasonic.

I have the FZ30 (now replaced by the FZ50 - I think the model above the FZ18 in their line up) and its excellent for what I need. Plenty of manual controls and good image quality - only disappoint is higher noise above ISO400 than most.
 
Is the FZ18 better than the Fuji S9600? From the reviews that I have seen the Fuji appears to take more detailed shots, but loses out on the zoom-am I right in thinking this?
 
I don't like the Fuji's (I briefly had an S9600); it seemed noisy and didn't have a proper live view. And it was larger than other bridge cameras.

I'd recommend the Canon G series.
 
I'm going to sound like an absolute noob here, but am going to ask a few questions!

1/When is zoom important? Obviously you want to be able to zoom into things that you want to get closer to-but is it mostly used when taking shots of vistas or landscapes, or when taking really close up or macro shots?

2/What do you mean by noisy, Alex? Is it distortion, or that slight pixellation you get on some pictures? What makes a camera create noisy photos? Is it the lens quality? If so, would you say that the Panasonic has a better lens than the Fuji?

3/Er...what's live view?


I was largely basing my choice to go for the Fuji on that review from Trusted Reviews; I kind of figure that if something gets tens across the board it can't be half bad, although obviously choosing a camera is also to do with how it feels to you. May head into town tomorrow and have a look at a couple in the flesh, although the £40 price difference is another major swing towards the Fuji...


The Canon G series looks more like a very nice compact series (correct me if I'm wrong). Only 6x zoom etc...
 
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I can't sleep, so I'll answer what I know to help:)

manic111 said:
1/When is zoom important? Obviously you want to be able to zoom into things that you want to get closer to-but is it mostly used when taking shots of vistas or landscapes, or when taking really close up or macro shots?
Click to expand...
Zoom is more important for close up / macro shooting imo, getting closer / tighter for better composition. Rarely would someone use zoom (of long telephoto range) for landscapes - those are often reserved for the wide and ultra wide shots (fit more into small space)

manic111 said:
2/What do you mean by noisy, Alex? Is it distortion, or that slight pixellation you get on some pictures? What makes a camera create noisy photos? Is it the lens quality? If so, would you say that the Panasonic has a better lens than the Fuji?
Click to expand...
Noise are often from the use of higher ISO. Fuji camera lens are often not as fast enough to correctly expose a shot in say dimly lit places like a pub without flash, so higher ISO is used - thus often resulting in higher noise shots. Fuji have quite decent noise reduction (based on my F30) use. No comments on the panasonic. Also, the size of the sensor also plays a part in the noise factor.

manic111 said:
3/Er...what's live view?
Click to expand...
It's basically seeing (more or less) exactly what you'll see through the viewfinder on the larger LCD screen (often >2" these days)
 
So is the idea that with a higher ISO, the shutter is open for less time and therefore needs to open wider, which in turn creates more noise?
 
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