I am not happy with the SP-550UZ. What is better?

[AgentZap]

The zoom on the camera is really amazing, but I am not happy with the quality of the images at all. Even when shooting with a low ISO there is more noise and the colors are not vibrant or crisp compared to my older Canon point and shoot.

I am leaving for a trip soon and need a 12x non SLR that has the best quality.

Every review I've read tends to have something wrong with the camera so I have "paralysis by analysis".

What do you think would be my best bet for low noise and good quality with a pretty big zoom?

 

[ElFenix]

they're all pretty compromised. the laws of physics being what they are, and the limits of manufacturing being what they are, it's very difficult to make a super zoom, let alone an ultra zoom.

for colors you may just need to adjust the saturation or other in camera settings. canon pumps up the reds a lot.