Hi, I am currently thinking of upgrading my Canon Ixus 40 and was wondering if anyone would be able to help me choose a suitable replacement. I was looking to spend between about £200 - £300. The cameras I viewed were the Canon A620, A700, Ixus 750, but then I saw the new Panasonic DMC-FZ30EB.

I wanted a camera that was reasonably compact but one that had a powerful optical zoom at the same time. I know the Panasonic is a little more expensive than the others but I dont mind paying that bit extra for a quality camera. I'm not a pro or anything, just someone who wants to take nice photos while I am away. is it necessary to get a larger camera with more optical to get the nicer photos?

Thanks in advance

[Biscuit761]

I have a FZ20, if you can afford to go for the FZ30 I would do it, the ability of the lens to reach into the distance puts all the compacts into the also ran league (IMO). Battery life is superb, went out with the camera to a model air display last week, took 180 + HQ pictures, only changed batteries after the 1st had been on non stop for about 4 hours (camera does a power save shut off after 2 minutes but I was taking so many this hardly came into effect.

1gig card for £15 plus a spare battery for about £9 if I remember from 7dayshop.com.

Go for it, the 30 is better than the 20 and I am pleased with mine

Bill

[Thatsnotmynaim]

Ixus 750 is an amazing camera. I bought my sister one for Xmas and was so jealous after playing with it. The screen is massive and the picture quality is amazing. Since it's now been replaced by the Ixus 800 with image stability the price of the 750 has dropped. If you're into eBay you can actually bid for it from the Canon outlet. They regularly gor for less than £200 on there. I'm nearly very tempted myself..

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/sear...&so=Show+Items

[beachy]

i also have the FZ20 and was lucky enough to pick it up for £199, and while it is a great camera personally i would'ent go for an FZ30 simply because i don't think the price is justified i think it sells for around £350 at the moment, if i was going to spend that sort of money i would go down the DSLR route you can pick up the nikon D50 now for just under £400 IMHO a far superior camera than the FZ30, might be worth thinking about.

Thanks a lot people, I appreciate it. I know the Panasonic is a little pricey but I wouldn't mind paying that little extra so long as the quality of the pictures was good. I was not contemplating buying an SLR because im not a pro, and I dont want to carry something so large around either. I know the Panasonic is a little larger than the Canon's but I think you could probably squeeze it in to your coat pocket

I find the Canon's easy to use aswell, but having played around with the Panasonic it does not seem to difficult to operate. I'll have to do some more reading of the reviews and playing around with the models at the store before I decide I think.