Versatile but could be better

Had this for 2 days now, and it is very easy to use, you can have it taking resonable pictures within minutes.

I already own a DSLR and prior to this had a Fuji E900, my partner has a Fuji F30 (More on tha one later)

My reason for getting this item is that there are time I cannot take a DSLR but I still want the telephot abilities. OK you could get a bridge camera but they are still big. The Panasonic TZ5 seemed the best.

Comparing to the E900 / F30

Limited dynamic range E900 way better

Resolution same as E900 the F30 is only 6mp, but actually takes a better picture as there is much less moise almost non existant at low ISO

Optical Zoom, Excellent good lens

Image stabilisation Seems to work

Video , Has HD 720p good but not up to a dedicated camcorder ok as a back up, some hunting of focus that can spoil things.

Noise ISO, OK(ish) up to 400 but best to keep at below 200, it just cannot touch the F30, and is slight worse than the E900

Control, Very easy, shame it does not have some manual control i.e. aperture and shutter prioity. This would linit it's use in the optional underwater housing.

Intelligent Auto, automatically knows what type of pic you are taking and adjust the camera to suit. Thsi actually seems to work most of the time, good for those quick shots.

Battery life seems OK but should get a spare, the E900 has advantages in that it takes AA,

I would that the F30 at only 6mp (shows the mp arnt everything) and the E900 take a better picture overall, Howeever the 28-280mm zoom lens is a real winner for vestility.

Build Quality is excellent.

I would say if you do not need the large zoom look elsewhere as there are cameras that take a better picture out there. But then we always have to make a compromise somewhere.

Great

I brought this camera a little over 1 month ago, and after extensive testing on a holiday to Berlin was very impressed with the features on this camera, only down side is the smile feature! i tied it out, and you need to be grinning ear to ear to make it work! but apart from that it is a good camera. Battery life is very good, and there is an internal memory just in case you run out of space on your memory card, i have a 4gb memory card and have found this sufficent for at least 4 days worth of photos, picture quality is very good as is the video recording. i would recomed this camera as it is light , looks good and packed with features.

Disappointing

I purchased this camera to replace my Canon PowerShot A40 (only 2 megapixels). Its a good job I held on to my Canon until I'd tested the Vivitar because to put it plainly, its awful. I used both cameras to take photos of the same things like, a bowl of fruit, the garden, my baby daughter. The Vivitar was a distant second on all counts. With the bowl of fruit it took 8 presses of the autofocus before it was vaguely accurate and I had placed the fruit bowl in good light. The LCD monitor is poor quality and flickers between rich and faded colouring. This camera is on offer for a reason, don't waste your money.

Great pics and movie but terrible audio on movie

Only get this cam if you want to take good pics with good widescreen shooting and a good x4 optical zoom. Movie mode quality is best yet for a compact but audio is very very poor that this makes this camera worthless if you want to take movies...go with an ixus 960/970 or 85/90is.

Beware!

This is a brillant camcorder that I was on the point of buying to cover a holiday in Peru. HOWEVER if you look on the Sony web site for the handbook, you will discover that use above 3000metres will destroy its hard drive!!!
I have spoken to Sony UK Technical department about this and they not only confirmed the above but also said that switching to record on the memory stick will NOT get round it. As soon as you turn the camcorder on it will damage the hard drive if above 3000m.
This was not mentioned in any sales literature or specifications, only the handbook -normally read after you've bought it!!

Not quite up to it

I had read many of the negative reviews for the FZ8 but thought the positives out-weighed the negatives. However, when I took the FZ8 along to a wedding, with the"i" setting the camera chose not to use the flash. Consequently most of the pictures had camera shake. I am not happy when using flash as the shutter speed is set at 1/30th second and some shots seem over exposed. With my old Canon AE1 the shutter speed was set at 1/60th - less chance of camera shake.Having borrowed an oldish Fuji S5000, which produced excellent results, I am rather disappointed with the Lumix FZ8.

great price for the quality

i bought this purely for the waterproof case included because i like swimming and it will be great for the summer.
for 5 megapixels (used to 7-12 megapixels with my 2 finepix cams) this gives great quality images. the video quality is also good. the camera itself is small, and very very light.
the reason for the four stars is that it isn't useable in low lighting; the images are dark and blurry.

i can't fault it otherwise and for the price, anyone who wants a cheap and cheerful camera should get one, especially as it comes with the waterproof case (feels strong and could easily take a battering).

Sony DSC-H10 Things just got better

I bought and reviewed the H3 when it came out and have just changed to the H10 these are basically the same camera with just minor changes i.e. screen size/resolution. Was it a worth while upgrade! Well I think it was, the mode dial which had always annoyed me on the H3 has also been changed on the H10 so it now stays on the setting you want. The screen has been changed and is how a 3" Hybrid TFT LCD with 230,000 dots it can be viewed at a very acute angle and in bright sunlight. I was never disappointed with the screen on the H3 but after starting to use the H10 with its bigger/higher resolution screen it would be hard to go back. The image quality is great and the camera is very easy to use.

As with the H3 the H10 use's Sony own format memory sticks so if this is your first Sony allow for the expense of the new memory format.

Excellent Camera

I needed a new camera for a holiday. I had specific requirements: easy to use point and shoot, reasonable zoom, some flexibility if I felt the need to be creative - and a camera that would produce good quality photographs.
I looked in a few photography magazines - was confused by the huge range of digital cameras - came to the net (realising that it would probably be worse).
This camera appeared to have the features I wanted and whilst, alas, there was only 1 review, it was a good one by someone who seemed to know his stuff.
When the camera arrived I couldn't get over how small it was - tho' once I was used to handling it, not at all uncomfortable to hold.
Personally, I didn't find the instruction booklet particularly easy to understand (tho' I do have a short attention span). Over the course of 2 weeks before the holiday I spent several 20 minute sessions familiarising myself with the camera and its operation.
I was extremely pleased with it. The zoom is great - with the option to 'extend the zoom' - which I found useful (went to Lake Como, Italy and this functionality was essential to some fantastic Lake shots).
The 'Intelligent Auto' (the camera does it for you) is the point and shoot functionality I want and also useful when those who aren't used to the camera take photos. The face recognition system is great for these reasons also.
I agree that the 3" LCD makes it so much easier to see what the photo will look like and also for viewing afterwards.
I advise that you buy a second rechargeable battery (incredibly expensive - £50!).
So far, the camera has been relatively painless to use and the photos are excellent: I'm really pleased.

My first digital camera

I only bought this camera two days ago, but I love it. It is easy to handle. The instructions are easy to follow. It is fun to play with and the picture quality is excellent.

Excellent - especially the night mode and anti-shake features

If you do not want to go for digital zooms, I can confidently say that this is the best digital camera. The night mode feature is superb. You dont need to hold steadily for a long time in night-mode to get good quality pictures. This also works in all cases where the light is less. Trying in auto-mode without the flash on also gives extremely good results under less light condition. Pistures taken from moving vehicle under dim light is excellent. So the anti-shake feature is also great. It also has a good macro feature! To sum up, this is a very handy good-quality camera.

great for technophobes

I bought this as a gift for my technophobic in-laws. within a very short space of time they had mastered the basic functions, (point and press) and now they can even upload their photos to a CD. Looks pretty, easy to use, decent quality photos. Comes with batteries, but no memory card, which is worth bearing in mind if you want to use it straight away.

overall, a good, simple, more-or-less idiot proof first-time digital camera.