Bridge camera with best auto mode?

Aidoscuz

Aidoscuz

Aidoscuz

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Joined
1 Jan 2005
Posts
511
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Hey all

My dad's had a Minolta Dimage 7i for 6 years or so and he's been getting some problems with the lens and image focusing recently, so he wants to get a new camera. He's looking for something similar to the Minolta - a bridge camera with a long zoom, good image quality and a good auto mode.

He'll be using it almost exclusively for photos for his work. He's an environmental engineer and needs it for shots of water treatment plants, both outdoor and indoor. He won't really have time to make any adjustments when he's taking the photos which is why a good auto mode is important.

I've been looking at a few models like the Fuji 8000fd, Fuji S9100/9600, Panasonic FZ18 and Canon S5 IS. Most discussions of them don't really focus on the auto capabilities though. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks
 
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Ive got the s9500 fujifilm and its pretty good in auto, I usually tend to try and stick to manual though, especially for darker images.
 
Thanks for the replies. I was originally all set on the S9600, but then I did a bit of looking and found lots of users saying that it wasn't really a point and shoot camera and that you had to mess around a bit to get good results. There's a lot of people saying the auto mode works well though so it's kind of hard to know what to think...

I like the sound of the Intelligent Auto mode on the FZ18, sounds like exactly what my dad needs. The lack of a manual zoom is a bit annoying though. Still, I think the Panasonic might suit my dad's needs best.

I noticed that Fuji are bringing out a new camera soon though, the S100FS. Sounds pretty amazing - 11MP on a 2/3 " Sensor, 14x manual zoom, dual image stabilisation, etc. Assuming the auto mode works well it looks like it'd be impossible to beat. It'll be expensive though and probably won't be available for a while. Decisions, decisions...
 
Just done a bit more looking and came up with the Panasonic FZ50. Seems very nice - the handling and shape look a lot better than the FZ18, and it's got a manual zoom. Anyone have any experience with this camera?
 
The Sonys don't seem to be as highly regarded as some of the other bridge cameras, I think I might give them a miss. I'm pretty much settled on the FZ50, a local camera shop stock it so my dad can try it out there to see how it feels. Thanks for the advice everyone.
 
Aidoscuz said:
Thanks for the replies. I was originally all set on the S9600, but then I did a bit of looking and found lots of users saying that it wasn't really a point and shoot camera and that you had to mess around a bit to get good results. There's a lot of people saying the auto mode works well though so it's kind of hard to know what to think...
Click to expand...

You get better results if you choose P (portrait?) mode.

:)
 
S9600 is as much as you want it to be, fully auto (which I haven't used in a long time) is fine, a bit noisy (as in sound) if you have the continuous auto focus on but is generally quick enough in good light for focusing. Only downside is that it has high image noise on anything over ISO 100 or 200 at a push, especially in low light conditions, but this can be rectified later in PP.

RAW mode is useful (1 of the reasons I got the camera) but its slow to process and save the images as they are almost 20Mb each, so if speed is an issue then stay with JPEG, although it only manages around 1.5fps on that.

I have found in the year I have had it that it just requires a bit of time to get to know the camera, if it wasn't for the annoying image noise and slow fps I wouldn't be thinking of going DSLR now, but otherwise its a very capable camera, although I think a replacement is due soon.

EDIT:

also it doesnt have image stabilisation, which can be a problem in low light, even at f2.8, if you dont want to use the flash.
 
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