Choosing a bridge camera??

pamweld

Hi I am in a local camera club and am really enjoying it, I have a great little compact camera at present, its a Pentax Option S12 and is a great little camera, have even won some competitions in the camera club using this camera over pictures taking with some cameras alot more advanced than mine! Macro is excellent too on it! My only problem is I find it very hard to over-write the controls on it if I want to play around with it so am hoping to go to next level and get a bridge camera. Have looked at few and there are some really good deals out there at present. Has anyone any opinions on these and if so which are you better to get?
Have looked at two in particular just would like your opinion on them..

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5596007/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CPhotography%7C14419436/c_2/3%7C19780865%7CDigital+cameras%7C14419441/c_3/4%7Ccat_14419441%7CBridge+digital+cameras%7C26695350.htm

and

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5594580/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CPhotography%7C14419436/c_2/3%7C19780865%7CDigital+cameras%7C14419441/c_3/4%7Ccat_14419441%7CBridge+digital+cameras%7C26695350.htm

all opinions appreciated.

peckerhead

I've been a fan of Fuji bridge cameras in the past (still have my old S9600 as backup), but at that price I would have to say the Nikon, without a doubt. They both have great features for that price, but I suspect the optics on the Nikon will be better, and possibly the image stabilisation, which is going to be important at the far end of the zoom range.

deandean

+1 on the Fuji; I've had an S9600 followed by the S100 and am very pleased with them. However they're expensive, prob 400+ Euro.

The bridge camera with the best lens I ever had was a Kodak easyshare, it had a Carl Zeiss lens but that was a few years back.

I can't comment on the two from Argos you linked, but overall IMO the Bridge cameras give good value for money, most have like 10:1 or better zoom plus macro, and being sealed you don't have problems with dust on the sensor.

Buy and enjoy!

pamweld

thanks guys for your help, well I went to reserve the nikon this morning and there were none anywhere left in country available so reserved the fuji. after reading these posts I went back in just to check again and happy out one nikon appeared in my local store so obviously someone reserved one and never picked it up! Good news for me!!! Thanks again for your help! Looking forward to playing with my new purchase

hbr

Some of the Nikon bridge cameras have little or no options for manual control.
This is ok for most point-&-shoot users, but it could be a serious limitation
for an enthusiast like yourself.


Panasonic FZ150 and Fuji HS20 are worth looking at. They are quite
a bit more expensive than the cameras you were looking at.

Argos have a good offer on the Canon Sx130 IS at the moment.
€123 and they have plenty in stock here in Cork.