Replacement Camera Recommendation

[geofftswin]

Hi There,

I've been reasonably happy with my Konica Minolta Dimage Z5 for the past 5 or so years; however it is now starting to show it's age with the occasional freeze on start up (lens extends and screen comes on but freezes part way through focusing - remove batteries and all is fine) and the left hand side of the control ring is starting to not function properly (if at all).

I have noticed also that the skies don't appear as blue as in various other Kodak/Sony/Canon cameras used at the same time!

Basically I'm after something of a similar camera to the one I've got, and have looked in brief at the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38, but was after some more advice as to what to go for; or is there anything I can do to give my camera a new lease of life (including proper colours)?

[chris-p]

Hi Geoff, welcome to the forum

It's difficult to say what you could do for your old Konica but the short answer is: probably very little. Sadly. Colours can be tweaked and adjusted in software afterwards but if the camera is suffering with electrical or mechanical issues it's almost definitely not worth repairing.

In terms of replacements, the Panasonic you mention is a great camera but it does have some stiff competition from a few other competitors. To be honest it may well come down to how much you want to spend but the cameras below are the front runners in this field (with the Panasonic for comparison)...

Panasonic DMC-FZ38
12.1MP, 27-486mm (18x) zoom, 2.3 fps, HD video (720p), 2.7" screen. About £250.

Canon Powershot SX20 IS
12.1MP, 28-560mm (20x) zoom, 0.7 fps, HD video (720p), 2.5" screen. About £300.

FujiFilm Finepix S200 EXR
12.0MP, 30.5-436mm (14.5x) zoom, 1.6 fps, VGA video, 2.7" screen. About £300.

Olympus SP-800 UZ
14.0MP, 28-840mm (30x) zoom, 10 fps, HD video (720p), 3" screen. About £300.

[geofftswin]

Thanks for the advice Chris,

Some serious food for thought there and I guess a hard reading of some reviews and comparisons is in order.

[chris-p]

I hope it's of some help, without making it more difficult!

Personally, I'm a big fan of Panasonic compacts, they're usually very good. The Canon really sets the benchmark though.

The Fuji is a corker of a camera but quite a bit bigger, my favourite thing about it though is the fact you zoom the lens using a zoom ring (rather than an electrical rocker switch).

The Olympus is a one of a long standing range of cameras but I personally think that 840mm equiv. at the long end is going a bit too far - I'd imagine the lens is at the limits of it's quality there...

[ianpinion]

Chris, you forgot to mention the Fuji HS-10, which like the Olympus has a 30x zoom lens. The initial reports for this camera have been quite favourable, though nobody has properly reviewed it as yet.

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by ianpinion

Chris, you forgot to mention the Fuji HS-10, which like the Olympus has a 30x zoom lens. The initial reports for this camera have been quite favourable, though nobody has properly reviewed it as yet.

I didn't really forget it, it's just that it's quite expensive at the moment and I don't think it's worth the money...

24mm to 720mm equiv is going a bit far I think. I've used one in a shop and while the zoom is very very long, the quality didn't impress but I didn't get the chance to look at the photos on anything other than the camera itself. I found a couple of reviews on WEx (link) which seem to rate it quite highly.