New Camera Wanted Forum Input

[hennessy1]

I was looking at these cameras
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ED&PageSize=20

These were the highest optical zooms I could find that did'nt have a bulky lens. I was wondering if you guys can give me your opinions on these or if I should be looking at something else.

I am looking for a high quality point and shoot with a good optical zoom that doesn't have a bulky lens. The higher the image quality the better but along those specs.

 

[BigSmooth]

The Panasonic ZS1 and the higher-end ZS3 were pretty highly-regarded compact superzooms. They have been replaced by the ZS5 and ZS7 respectively. The newer models have more features, but some say the low-light performance has diminished somewhat. Overall image quality should still be quite good, though.

For most people, any of them are probably a good choice if you are looking for this type of camera. Panasonic has been among the market leaders in this segment for a while now.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Yeah, Panasonic's pretty good with stuff like this.

 

[jpeyton]

http://dpreview.com/reviews/Q210grouptravelzoom/page24.asp

 

[hennessy1]

So we went to best buy to look at them in person. We ended up getting the Panasonic
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16830180326

in comparison to the canon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16830120433

The LCD on it is much better. On the canon we noticed it was washed out even messing around with the settings didn't help the Panasonic was much more vivid in color.

 

[HN]

not sure if you want to go through the trouble of returning and reordering but on amazon, there's currently a coupon for $50 off the zs7. depending on what color you want, it could range from $257 (red) -- $261 (black) shipped, no tax for most states. I went with the black.

use code ZS7JUNEI at the last page of checkout. make sure the seller is amazon and not some 3rd party vendor.

 

[hennessy1]

Thank you for that.

In your guys opinion for the camera were getting does it make any sense to go with the $500 panasonic card vs. the $200 sandisk card here

http://sandisk.com/products/dslr/san...tra-sdxc-cards

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...sim/6688861-20

 

[HN]

Thank you for that.

In your guys opinion for the camera were getting does it make any sense to go with the $500 panasonic card vs. the $200 sandisk card here

http://sandisk.com/products/dslr/san...tra-sdxc-cards

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...sim/6688861-20

both of these links are borked. can't tell which you're pointing to.

 

[hennessy1]

Sorry about that guys

http://sandisk.com/products/dslr/sandisk-ultra-sdxc-cards

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...sim/6688861-20

 

[PurdueRy]

Sorry about that guys

http://sandisk.com/products/dslr/sandisk-ultra-sdxc-cards

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...sim/6688861-20

Oh wow, do you really need that much space? I doubt you'll need that fast of a card for a simple point and shoot. That's right around 20,000 pictures on one card! I anything, get a couple smaller cards so if one fails you don't lose all 20,000 of your pictures.

 

[hennessy1]

I'd figure we would need it for the pictures if we have them on the highest quality settings and same for movies?

 

[slashbinslashbash]

According to [link=http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/ZS7/ZS7A.HTM]this review[/link], a 2GB card will hold 391 still images at highest quality, or 15 minutes of best quality video in AVCHD format (I wouldn't recommend using the M-JPEG video format, which is much less efficient). So an 8GB card would give ~1600 images or ~1hr of video. I doubt the battery could last as long! The battery is rated for 300 images.

I would take half of your $300 memory card budget and spend it on extra batteries, and the rest on 8GB or 16GB cards.

 

[BigSmooth]

Definitely go with several smaller cards instead of a single 64GB. You will never need a massive card like that. Even if you plan to do a lot of video it's not a big deal to carry a few extra cards with you and swap them out when necessary. Plus, if you have several cheaper cards it's not quite as big a deal if you happen to lose one of them.

 

[hennessy1]

Ok I'll probably go with a few 8GB cards would you say 2 batteries would be good for a days worth of picture taking?

 

[BigSmooth]

2 batteries should easily cover a day of shooting. Panasonics generally have good battery life; from what I can tell, you should get at least 300 shots per charge.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

Yeah, 600 photos is probably beyond most people's endurance for a normal day's photos. If I'm working a big event then I can shoot 200+ photos an hour, but on vacations or normal photos for personal use, I would rarely see 300 in a day.

 

[speedy2]

So we went to best buy to look at them in person. We ended up getting the Panasonic
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16830180326

in comparison to the canon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16830120433

The LCD on it is much better. On the canon we noticed it was washed out even messing around with the settings didn't help the Panasonic was much more vivid in color.

So the only reason you chose one was because the pics looked better on the LCD? Or because the LCD looked better.