Please help us choose the right Digital Camera for us, looking for a good deal.

bootcutboy

My girlfriend and I are on the look out for a new digital camera as we are always out and about and the camera we currently have is a bit rubbish. We are both beginners to photography but I take a very good photo and am very keen to learn a lot more so I need a camera that will inspire me to get better and better, whilst My girlfriend has just started a fashion blog so she will eventually need a very good camera to take professional pictures, but it is such a minefield choosing one and knowing what does what.

We are on a budget of around £200-300MAX, and I thought now would be a good time for us to jump in and get one as it is sales time and before the VAT increase to save a few more pennies. One feature we are quite keen on is a good BURST feature, both for my girlfriends fashion pics and for pics of the pair of us (were not very photogenic so it would be nice to have a choice from a few).

One camera that keeps catching my eye is The Panasonic Lumix FZ45 which is around £270, but I know Fujifilm finepix do some similar cameras but I struggle to know what to look for, really I just want the best we can get on our budget so please can you lovely people help?

We are open to all types of camera, compact or more professional so if anyone has seen any good deals, any good discount codes kicking about, or can just offer some advice that would be great.

Thanks in advance!