Nice point and shoot camera for £200?

[Ex-User (19928)]

Hi!
I'm after a new camera for the lady's birthday. I had a few searches online and came across the Sony HX50 which looked quite nice, however I had a play with one in Currys and it felt a bit fiddly.

Next to it was the Panasonic TZ60 which felt much nicer to handle, however after a search I discovered not great reviews, which for £260 or whatever it is online I'd want to be buying best in the class.

Really it's for the GF so she's not going to be too worried about manual settings, however it would be nice to have decent low light performance and a good zoom (it's the 30x optical that attracted me to the 2 mentioned cameras).

So is there anything in this price range that's suitable whilst still being compact?

Tia.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

30x optical zoom ? Is she going plane or even planet spotting ? Why would she need that and what's it relative to..? My SLR + 200mm lens is equivilent to ~11x apparently... I don't know what I'd ever shoot needing 3x that.

It's a little like the sales spaff called 'Mega Pixels' .. utterly pointless figure for the most part, especially on compact or mobile cameras.. if the sensor is smaller than the end of a biro and there's 20 million photosensors on there, they're not going to be very large or very good.

If she's keen on photography, get a second hand DSLR. If she's going to take about 600 identical photos in a club toilet of her and her mates then lose it on the way home.. well, IMO, don't bother

Check out Amazon's top sellers .. see what floats your boat. Pick one - what can possibly go wrong...

 

[Gally]

Lumix range I think still have some of the best point and shoots.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Check out Amazon's top sellers .. see what floats your boat. Pick one - what can possibly go wrong...

Quite. That's where I found the Sony.

You mention the megapixel race, but zoom is zoom. In the shop for example (not a challenging setting to test IQ ability) I took a picture of some house phones, from the distance I could just about make out the brand of the phones.

With a zoomed in photo I could then read the words on the buttons of the phone on the front of the box. Obviously you'd need a pod of some sort to take a picture at that zoom, but I must say the image stabilisation seemed impressive anyway.

Thanks Gally. Think I'll check out the model below the TZ60 first as best part of £300 feels like a lot for a compact camera.

(She wouldn't want a DSLR)

 

[rave]

I have a HX50 and really rate it. It was recommended to me by a pal who is semi pro. True, jog wheel is a bit fiddly, but quality, adjustment and wifi make up for it. I paid full wack for mine 18 months ago when it 1st came out, so £200 is a steal!

 

[Feirny]

Look at something like a Canon EOS-M or similar. I've got one and it's an epic little thing for what it is. Can be had for around £200.