Advice needed please for a new camera!!

My camera is a Panasonic DMC FZ10. I had a job to find it, as it had just come onto the market and all the dealers were out of stock. I managed to find eventually and have never regretted it, 12x zoom, f2.8 throughout, focuses down to 50mm (1mm with a 1 dioptre supplementary lens, gives six times life size). Although they have brought out many improved models I have never seen enough improvement to warrant changing. Lens definition is so good I can take a picture of a vehicle at 150metres and read the number plate.

 

You wont believe this but I still have not bought my camera yet.:dh: Its not something I will be buying to often so I want to get it right.:wink: Does anyone have 1st hand experience with the canon IXUS 85 IS. It seems to be highly recommended. It was a little bit dearer than I was going to pay but what the hell, I deserve it after waiting all this time.:thmb: Any input would be graretfully recieved.:halp: Thanks 02

 

I'm a Cannon fan myself. Long time since I had an SLR, I just want something that will (more or less) fit in my pocket these days.

I had an A70 for several years and when that died I bought an S3. The S3 is a nice compromise as a replacement for an SLR, but you need a poachers pocket :hehe: to put it in!

The Canon software has worked well for me over the years. Seems to be well thought through.

My S3 has anti-shake which means I can zoom in to the full digital zoom and take photographs hand held. I still can't work out how they achieve that!

Tangential suggestions:

I save my pictures on my PC using folders which include the date in YYYYMMDD format - this means that they sort, alphabetically, in date order.

I rename the folders to append a short detail about what the photos are in that folder - so "20090416_Garden" or "20090416_JohnSmithWedding" - and I find that helps me find them.

I create a new folder for each year - so all the "2009mmdd" folders are under a "2009" folder. This means when I open up the folder tree there are only sub-folders for that year - which cuts down the amount of scrolling.

And finally I rename the picture names to include some detail of them when important - I keep the "IMG_1234" name that Cannon assigns and append my extra bit - so perhaps "IMG_1234_TomatoMoneymaker". Keeping the "IMG_1234" bit keeps them in chronological order - even if I edit the picture such that its date changes. I only bother with this for things that I may want to search on in the future, or if I, or my grand chidlren!, are likely to want to find pictures of Great Aunt Mabel!

Oh, and finally finally! when I transfer from Camera to PC I then copy to another PC in the house - so the pictures are in two places if one PC breaks. To safeguard against a fire you need to copy them to comething else that you keep somewhere else. DVD or somesuch. Apparntly loss of photos is one of the most devestating effects of a house fire ...

A picture paints a thousand words .. .so I'd better attach one! Looks like we were redoing the kitchen in January 2008

 

Well Ive gone out today and really spoiled myself )))) Ive bought the Panasonic Lumix TZ7. Im overwhelmed by it. Im not usually an extravagant person but I think Ive done my research well. Its only taken me 2 years to decide what camera I would really like ) Now I have to do a lot of reading to make the most of my expensive buy. But I feel like a child who got what they wanted for Christmas )) X

 

:gnthb::gnthb:Good choice.:gnthb::gnthb::gnthb:

I too have the the Lumix and still luv it as the day I first got it.
Enjoy.
robert

 

The DP Review web site is an excellent place to go for reviews of digital cameras. The reviews are VERY comprehensive and objective and they show/compare photos taken with cameras of similar price/specification.
There's a bewildering range of digitals available now and the range seems to change almost by the month, so happy hunting!

http://www.dpreview.com/

 

I always think camera choices are a bit subjective as well as the need to consider price and facilities.
I've had many cameras over the years and as soon as you buy one another comes out.
I've had mine now for two years and I'm really pleased with it.
It's a Panasonic Lumix DCM LZ7. Which gives you all the options to change settings or you can put it on "Simple" mode or "Scene" mode where there are 20 "pre-sets" from "soft skin" to remove wrinkles in portraits to "night sky" etc. It also has a super zoom setting. It's so easy to use you don't really have to think about it.
It also takes superb vidoes with excellent sound, all the ones I've put on here I took with this little camera.

Digressing, when I was eighteen I was friendly with an Armenian girl at work, who was in her late twenties. Her rather rich parents had given her the latest Voigtlander Vito B camera for her birthday. As she was going on holiday with them in a couple of day's time she asked me how to use it.

The settings were too much for her to manage and she was close to tears as she knew she'd have trouble with it on her own.
So I got a roll of Sellotape and taped it up on a setting that would give her a good all-round "holiday snap" type picture and it did.
She was very grateful for that.

 

02, pleased you have chosen your camera and having the TZ7 you should produce some quality shots.:thumb:
Most of mine pics on here in the last two years have been taken with the older FZ7.

I have tended to use the simple mode (jpeg) as it uses up much less space on the card rather than the other settings (TIIF) and still come out sharp and clear.

 

Thanks everyone for your friendly advice and sharing your tips. I know Ive had my camera for a few weeks now but still have'nt bought an sd card for it yet as I have had so much on. Would it be wise to buy the panasonic sd card which is recommended or would any compatable one do. Got to get my finger out now as we go away a week on Monday and need to be up and running before then. Many thanks 02 ))

 

Any compatable card would do and may well work out cheaper.
I've bought several cards from "Memory Bits" over the last few years and have found it a good place to go. I'm not suggesting they are best or cheapest but when I was 'Googling around' they had the best price at the time for what I wanted.

http://www.memorybits.co.uk/categories/high-speed-cards/776