I figure if you are going for a bridge rather than a reflex then spending the extra ££ may not be worth it.
Jimbo
Which Camera?
I'm not sure that it's going to be easy to make up my mind ...Ju wrote:Caroline - I like the panasonic you are looking at , but I'm not sure what you really gain vs the Nikon which is £80 cheaper.
I figure if you are going for a bridge rather than a reflex then spending the extra ££ may not be worth it.
Jimbo
Someone else has suggested this. It has great reviews here, but so has the Nikon
When you shoot photographs for a living, you’re compelled to buy the best equipment that you can afford because you mostly don’t know what plans your client has for the resulting images. And, so often, a great shot will write its own script and find itself part of a billboard campaign or being displayed as a high-quality print in a corporate boardroom. So every exposure has to be treated as if it is ‘the one’.The Nikon doesn't have a Leica lens.
When you’re shooting for your own business – and particularly for the web - then different rules apply. Mostly, expensive high-end cameras are overkill for relatively small web images and even modestly-priced consumer cameras will be more than adequate for the task. But – and this is the sting in the tail for rental owners – smallish room interiors cannot (IMO) be effectively shot without a lens of 24mm or wider. And, anybody searching amongst the blizzard of fixed lens consumer cameras will quickly discover that such wide-zoomed cameras are rare – and correspondingly expensive. So, sometimes, if you want to play with the big boys and girls, you have to commit the funds.
On the credit side, a high quality 24mm lens is a thing of the greatest desirability, beauty and usefulness. The 24-90 mm (in old money!) Leica fixed zoom lens fitted to Diana’s Panasonic LX-5 is astonishing value in a camera priced at about 350 GBP. Diana's LX-5 shot below (at 24mm) of the sons of our pool guy 'christening' his work on our newly lined pool.
Jim
Thank you all for your input on this subject.
I have learned a lot and deliberated a lot and have finally decided to buy the Panasonic TZ20.
I did remember to order through the LMH link
My good friend and guest Pete is here this week and he is a brilliant (yet amateur) photographer here is one of his beautiful photos.
We have been discussing cameras all weekend and the reasons for choosing the TZ20 were as follows:
I don't need RAW like Jimbo - I wouldn't know what to do with it!
It doesn't have interchangable lens, but I will probably never change the lens anyway.
It has the all important 24mm lens
It has a super reputation and great write-ups
The TZ30 was a contender, but at £100 dearer, I thought that the extra zoom (20x as opposed to 16x) and the 3D video capabilities were not that important to me.
It can fit in my handbag!
It has a flash.
It has no viewfinder, but I don't go skiing and when it's really sunny, I'm working, so not important for me.
There you go - horses for courses - I hope I learn to use it to do it justice.
I have learned a lot and deliberated a lot and have finally decided to buy the Panasonic TZ20.
I did remember to order through the LMH link
My good friend and guest Pete is here this week and he is a brilliant (yet amateur) photographer here is one of his beautiful photos.
We have been discussing cameras all weekend and the reasons for choosing the TZ20 were as follows:
I don't need RAW like Jimbo - I wouldn't know what to do with it!
It doesn't have interchangable lens, but I will probably never change the lens anyway.
It has the all important 24mm lens
It has a super reputation and great write-ups
The TZ30 was a contender, but at £100 dearer, I thought that the extra zoom (20x as opposed to 16x) and the 3D video capabilities were not that important to me.
It can fit in my handbag!
It has a flash.
It has no viewfinder, but I don't go skiing and when it's really sunny, I'm working, so not important for me.
There you go - horses for courses - I hope I learn to use it to do it justice.
Tripod is on the orderJimbo wrote:dpreview wrote:Looking like a good choice, Caroline. Hope that you'll be happy together!... the ZS10 is one of the best cameras in its class ... Optical quality from the ZS10's 24-384mm lens is excellent ...
Don't forget the tripod!
BTW, Jimbo, the liner looks good!
We went to the house last week. A few days before we went I discovered that No 1 son had destroyed the camera on the school ski-ing trip 
but reading on here I instructed OH to get replacement with 24mm lens - thanks everyone for all the useful info.
In fact I instructed him to get the Panasonic, but he came back with Nikon Coolpix P310 as it also has 24mm lens, and he thought it was better in low light, but it only has a 4.2X zoom and some of the others we saw had more zoom.
We took some pictures last week. They seem OK. Also some videos, again seem OK, although as we aren't experts they are quite jerky - more practice needed I think.
The Nikon doesn't have a viewfinder but that didn't seem a problem for us.
For the first time in years (since I got glasses) I was able to take some pictures myself
.....OK I just did point and click, but its inspired me to actually read the manual when I have time and see if I can use some of the extra features/adjustments.
but reading on here I instructed OH to get replacement with 24mm lens - thanks everyone for all the useful info. In fact I instructed him to get the Panasonic, but he came back with Nikon Coolpix P310 as it also has 24mm lens, and he thought it was better in low light, but it only has a 4.2X zoom and some of the others we saw had more zoom.
We took some pictures last week. They seem OK. Also some videos, again seem OK, although as we aren't experts they are quite jerky - more practice needed I think.
The Nikon doesn't have a viewfinder but that didn't seem a problem for us.
For the first time in years (since I got glasses) I was able to take some pictures myself
.....OK I just did point and click, but its inspired me to actually read the manual when I have time and see if I can use some of the extra features/adjustments.