:-( Broken digital camera just before Xmas

molezak

My old faithful camera has been killed and now we need a replacement, can anyone help with recomendations?

We don't necessarily need one for Christmas day so could wait for post-Christmas sales but....

Where do we start?

• Ideally don't want to spend more than £150 but would for an amazing deal
• Take a lot of photos of kids and dogs/other animals on the move so quick shutter speed (minimal delay)
• Have been using old Sony DSC-P10 up to now which has v annoying shutter delay time

Anybody know any great deals coming up or on now? Don't mind which brand but have been looking at Fuji Finepix F70? Anybody have one?

Please help! Hate being without a camera with little kids and a litter of puppies!

[Deleted User]

I've posted before, but the two cameras i'd look at sub-£150 are:
Canon Ixus 95 or the Panasonic FS15

molezak

Thanks ringo for your advice. It's a bloomin minefield. Hubby has said he'd up price for substantially better camera and from looking at the FS15, we found that the Panasonic TZ7 is rated very highly, would you say the TZ7 is much better than the FS15?

I see that the US version of the TZ7 is the ZS3, would there be any problems buying an import for use in the UK?

Thanks!!

Fifer

molezak wrote: »

I see that the US version of the TZ7 is the ZS3, would there be any problems buying an import for use in the UK?

Probably not with the camera itself, but the warranty might not be valid (some companies give international warranties, others don't), you have no protection under the Sale of Goods Act and any included charger will have a US power plug and may not be suitable for UK mains voltage.

Also, a personal import will attract VAT, duty and customs clearance charges on top of the price paid.

BillScarab

Panasonic TZ rng are superb. We have the older TZ3 and its a great camera

[Deleted User]

The TZ will have a much bigger zoom .. which can be handy.

If you buy from the US and it's under 300 quid or so (can't remember exact allowance amount) then there is no more duty/VAT to be paid... I bought my Panasonic L10 (dSLR) from the Caribbean and have had no problems in 18 months. Only thing i needed was a UK plug to put on the charger.. but Panny use a pretty standard lead and i had one at home anyway.

In my own experience, the only way to really substantially go up in the world digital cameras is to get an SLR. The closest to that would be getting a camera with an external flash adaptor (like the Canon PowerShot G10.. but you could buy an SLR for the price)

molezak

Thanks all for your replies, no it wouldn't be a personal import.. I've just found one on sale described as a ZS3/TZ7 for about £219 including a 4GB memory card but obviously it's not a good deal if we can't use it to it's full potential!

Are the memory cards universal or could that be a potential compatibility problem too? Have a plug adaptor somewhere too )

[Deleted User]

Memory cards are universal.. SD cards are the same worldwide

Personally.. i don't think there will be a great difference between the quality of image from the two cameras. From the specs on the Panasonic website, they've both got a similar lens at the wide-angle (F 3.3 25mm or 29mm)

Have you looked at the Panny FX550 - its got a massive LCD and a faster wide angle lens (f 2.8) - this will perform better in low light than the other 2 cameras.

Now if i had the money, the compact camera i'd buy would be the Panny LX3.. hmm f2.0 aperture would make for some great portrait photos

randomtask_2

The TZ7 is a great camera - a tad larger than some of the other compacts but it takes excellent pictures, with a very good zoom with the bonus of a HD video option.

mchale

Panasonic DMC-FS62 ??

molezak

Again, thank you for all your replies. I've checked out all the cameras suggested and it's quite difficult to compare camera to camera when you switching from one webpage to another. Does anyone know of a website that has quite detailed side-by-side comparison tables?

The FX sounds better but can be found cheaper than the TZ7? Am I missing something?! Want to get this new camera sorted before VAT jumps back up!