Bridge camera wanted

Limey

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Could do worse than the fuji hs30EXR for £212

http://www.digitalrev.com/product/fujifilm-finepix-hs30exr/MTAwMDIxMA_A_A?gclid=CP-41qqWgbQCFe7MtAodLQkAvw

30x zoom and extremely usable. Bought the wife the hs20 and setup correctly, its nearly as good as some budget SLRs for image quality

Good reviews (most importantly from users, not just the 'pros')
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/compact-digital-cameras/fujifilm-finepix-hs30-exr-review-50007695/

I've got an HS20EXR (not a lot of difference between the two) and it's a great camera, it's even put a few DSLRs to shame. Good size screen, great sensor, amazing zoom and more functions than you can shake a stick at.

2 sets of rechargables lasted a week in Australia and I took at least 200 pics.

The only cons I can think of are
1. The view finder is pretty useless as the view through it is small.
2. The manual focus is fiddly and I don't like the way it 'zooms in' on what the camera thinks you're trying to focus on.

WhiteChristmas

Disclaimer: I'm a Canon SLR man who uses two (relatively ageing) bridges for day to day shots; a Fuji 6500 and a Casio EX-FH20 (specifically used for its awesome 40fps burst mode).

In my experience, you get most for your money in the bridge market from Fuji. The Lumix range is fab, but overpriced imo; I think of it as the Apple of digital cameras. It has the same sort of fanatical fanbase, too.

I subscribe to the AA preference sect because I've been caught out with a power failure on my SLR travels - at least with AAs you stand a chance of picking up spares in the field.

One thing to keep in mind. Most (not all, but check because they don't publicise it well) bridges with powered zooms will only allow you to shoot video with sound at fixed focal length. If you want to use zoom, they disable the sound recording. If you want to shoot video with sound and zoom, you generally need the manual zoom version.