I recently broke my point and shoot style digital camera and am trying to decide on a new one. I am intrigued by the new "super zooms" and have narrowed the search to either a Canon SX20 IS or a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ 35. The Panasonic gets great reviews, but seem to remmber some advice that "when buying a camera, buy one that's made by a camera company" or some such. Thoughts, opinions, advice would all be welcome. I am not a die-hard photography guy, but do like to play around with some "artsy" effects, close-ups, etc.

What with all the different brands and options, the first, best piece of advice I have is;

When assessing "zoom" capability, do not rely on "digital zoom." "Optical zoom" is what you're looking for.

Digital zoom is basically software interpolating the image, and it never does a good job of it. At least in my experience. The images come out with a dramatic loss of detail, and elevated graininess.

Optical zoom is based on lenses, and therefore inherently more capable of providing accurate and clearer pictures.

That's my 2 cents, hope it helps,

Len

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Qui me amat, amet et canem meum

Len is right, go with the best optical zoom and forget the digital zoom feature, it's just blowing up the picture you are seeing, it never looks better.

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Dick

As mentioned, optical zoom is most important. Once you go into digital zoom, you loose quality fast.

Also, for a point and click like you're looking for, you don't need anything over 10 mega pixels even if you're going to make prints. In fact you could get away with less, one of my older cameras was 6 mega pixels and produced beautiful 8x10 prints. Considering your needs, over 10 and you're wasting money.

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- The Federalist #46 -

Nikon, Nikon, Nikon.

The advice about only buying from camera companies is all wet. Companies like Panasonic, Sony, Casio etc. make great cameras. What about the lenses? They buy them from famous lens making companies, including Zeiss, Leica and the more famous Japanese companies.
Just be sure to get image stabilization, especially with the superzoom cameras.
They only thing I have against Olympus and Sony is that they don't use standard SD memory cards. Not being quite as common they tend to be more expensive.

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

I have an older Canon S3 IS with the 20 power optical zoom.
The camera has been great. It also has the video mode
which the wife loves. It is an older 6 megapixel and the wife wants
to upgrade to the one you are looking at. It has taken some
great pictures. I forgot to add that I love the zoom capability!

I have a Kodak EasyShare M340, and I think it's pretty good.

Love my Fuji S1000FS and they can be had for a song.. It's built like a D-SLR, it handles like a D-SLR and it has a big zoom of 28mm to 400mm and the best part of all is the zoom is manual... that's right... As fast as your hand can turn the ring.. No waiting on a diminutive electric motor to move the lens for you.

It also has optical and digital image stabilization

I have many, many film cameras in my collection and I miss the quality of the past (Leicaflex, Nikon F, Nikon F2, Canon F1). That said, the Canon Digital Cameras I have work very well and do a good job (Canon 30D and 50D) You may like having a DSLR. The sensor is bigger than the usual P&S (with some exceptions) and it is much more versatile. The prices have come down a great deal. I like B&H photo as a source, I have had absolutely perfect service from them over the years. This is an example price wise of an entry level DSLR

Canon | EOS Rebel XS (a.k.a. 1000D) SLR Digital | 2762B003 | B&H

I use the Canon system, but the Nikon cameras are very nice as well.

Best.

Dwight

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Veritas et Humanitas

I too, have an older S3 Is, and it has served me well for my current photographic needs. I no longer want to carry an SLR with several lenses around. I've seen the model your interested in, and it isn't much smaller than a small SLR. If your willing to carry it around, you may want to go ahead and get an SLR.

As with any "zoom" lense, the quality will not be 100% at either extreme. Also, the sensor will be smaller than that of an SLR. I'd play with both in a store before you buy. Hope this helps.

best, RG

Aloha,

My votes are for the Panasonic TZ series.

We have a TZ1(10X), TZ3(10X) and TZ6(12X) plus the FZ18(18X Optical zooms).

The best deals on the TZ cameras I've found are from Costco. I think they have the ZS1(TZ6) now for Under $200. It does Not do HD video, just regular video and it's screen is "only" 2.7 in.

The TZ7 has HD Video and a 3" screen, FWIW

Both have a Wide angle lens And 12X optical zoom.

Most of the time I never use the long zoom capability, but when I Need it, I have it.

My friend who is a retired pro wedding photographer now generally carries a TZ3 a lot.

The Plus side of these cameras is that they are the smallest(so far) of the long zoom P & S cameras and slide into a pocket easily(just don't miss the pocket, like I did 2X. Cameras still work after hitting concrete floor)
Also uses SD film cards

The only "downside" of the TZ series is that they have a metal body and are heavier than the other long zoom P & S cameras.