Bridge camera's

[paul87]

Looking for more help again

 

My parents are now grandparents, not by me lol, and really like to capture all those moments. So with having my 2 nieces over for Christmas dinner this year I thought they could make use of a half decent camera as their Christmas present. They always have a compact with them and take a lot of pictures but thought I would get them something with better specs, mainly a longer zoom as they spend a lot of time in the country and on breaks.

 

I was thinking a bridge camera would be best, although happy to be told otherwise.

My criteria is as follows

£200 budget but could stretch a bit for the right one

Optical viewfinder

Flash

Panorama mode

24+x optical zoom

Can be re-charged, does not require new or seperate rechargable batteries each time

 

 

Really appreciate your advice on this one guys

Thanks

Paul

Edited December 11, 2012 by paul87

[Tim Kelly]

The lumix range are generally pretty good. If they're mostly going to be using it for pictures of the kids, you'd be better off with a less ambitious zoom range. You'll probably find you end up with either a bigger sensor (Better quality pics) or a faster lens for better low light shooting. Long zoom lenses tend to mean something else suffers to gain the huge zoom range.

 

Forgot to add, you'll probably struggle to get an optical viewfinder, especially at your budget.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Tim Kelly

[monster1971]

I did some research on this in June and ended up with the Olympus sp800 uz great bit of kit and not so complicated to use that it makes it a nightmare like a lot of others are . The Fuji is a good price but is slow to focus and the Nikon is brilliant but you have to know it inside out to use it quickly .spare batteries from maplin about 20 quid (rechargeable)

Took mins to africa on safari and it will do it all ,macro to long distance

Mark

[clakk]

yep mrs bosses fuji is slow to focus but takes a good picture ,very frustrating trying to photo grandkids cos them dont stand still for long

[monster1971]

Amazon do the batteries for under 7 quid now

Yeah them pesky grandkids dont stay still for long do they

[Biffo1262]

I agrre entirely with the above commets. The Lumix range are now superb compared to the early FZ20 which was very good except for noise in the higher ISO ratings. That has now benn sorted. The Leica lenses are superb and I feel only the Fujinon lenses are comparable. In fact I had a a Fujinon lens on a 35mm camera that did even better than the Nikon refrence test in Amateur photograper. Yes they are that good BUT the auotfocus can be a bit of a pain with the Fuji and the shutter lock and write times aren' as good as the Lumix but there isn't much in it. Whatever you do my advice is to go with one that will accept an external falshgun and has manual focus facility. If necessary I would even by the older Lumix FZ20 as it has all that and provided you don't go above ISO 200 then you'll find it takes superb pictures even though it's only 5MP. I do have 12 and 14mp cameras but still find my FZ20 beats the lost of them overall. You can find a very good used model for well under £150 but some sellers on the Bay seem to think they can get£400 for them!!!!! I paid £180 brand new for mine from the QVC shop in Warrington. You may find the small 2" screen a disadvatge though but I always use the electronic viewfinders for shooting anyway. The FZ18 is a nice camera too at 8MP and also has manual focus though it is joystick button operated and not on the lens ring like the FZ20.

[itchy trigger]

I recommend that before you buy have a look at the Panasonic tz range, I have the older tz3 it is fantastic for what I want, friends that have seen my camera along with the photo's and videos have since bought the newer versions, with HD, zoom when videoing, better zoom ect, they tell me that they rarely now use their slr type digital cameras as the tz does everything they require quickly and simply, had a quick google and john lewis have a tz25 at £30+ less than your budget

[NIGHT SEARCHER]

The Fuji 5000 and 6000 are excellent cameras I am very pleased with my 5000. 18 x zoom.

[paul87]

Thanks for the replies guys

What do you make of these models? Spec seems good

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Compact%20Digital%20Cameras/products/Panasonic/Lumix%20DMC-FZ48%20Digital%20Camera-82659/Show.html?cm_mmc=GoogleBase-_-CompactDigitalCameras-_-all-_-all&ovc=

 

http://www.digitalrev.com/product/fujifilm-finepix-hs30exr/MTAwMDIxMA_A_A?googlebase=1&country=GB

 

or slightly cheaper

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Compact%20Digital%20Cameras/products/Fujifilm/FinePix%20SL245%20Bridge%20Camera%20-%20Exclusive%20to%20Jessops-84329/Show.html no charging facility unfortunately

 

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Compact%20Digital%20Cameras/products/Fujifilm/FinePix%20S4500%20Digital%20Bridge%20Camera-83721/Show.html

 

Thanks

Paul

[ETO]

I have just bought my first Bridge camera. £130 from Argos - Nikon L810 coolpix. It doesn't have view finder though, but I am more than happy with it.

[Tim Kelly]

The Lumix looks the pick of the ones you've posted. If you're happy with that style of camera the Canon ones are good too.

[paul87]

Just came across this one guys right on budget and looks to be the next lumix model up

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008N8NXYG/ref=gb1h_img_c-1_5247_A1TFEXJENWFW41?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1VEGPZZ5YYSGZDAKMAPH&pf_rd_i=350613011&pf_rd_p=355805247

 

sorry this was £200 2hrs ago, should have snapped it up then. No pun intended

Edited December 12, 2012 by paul87

[Salop Matt]

I personally have a Fuji and its my second and I love it ! A friend who is a pro photographer who also works at jessops says sony are very good and thats what she has aswell as her DSLR !

 

ATB

 

Matt

[pimpkiller]

ive got the panasonic FZ45 (the one before the FZ48) and its the growlers nads Its a series of cameras that you genuinely cant go wrong with.