I'm looking for a compact camera for Mrs K. that will also handle HD video.
Priorities are: Video quality, optical zoom, stills, audio and then battery life in that order.
It must also fit in a clutch (?) or evening (?) bag with lipstick and other female things.
So far, I've seen the Canon SX210 and Lumix TZ10.
Any others I should check out?
Kevin...
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"It must also fit in a clutch (?) or evening (?) bag with lipstick and other female things."
Why don't you just ask the wife to carry it?
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>Why don't you just ask the wife to carry it?
Usually got her hands full. Margarita in one, my collar in t'other.
Kevin...
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You might find this "Compact Super Zoom" group test useful.
www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q210grouptravelzoom/
I have the Samsung WB650 mentioned in the test - image quality is good; however I'm not into video using "still" cameras so can't comment about this aspect. I note only the Sony in the test does 1080 video, all the others, including the two you mention, do 720.
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Sony HX5V, very clever features.
What is your budget?
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Another vote for the Sony HX5V.
I bought one recently to replace my 10 year old Leica after spending a long time with a very helpful assistant in the local Mediamarkt, which is a sort of German version of Comet. I wanted a high spec compact with a good quality zoom lens that also had a reasonable wide angle. I was initially swayed by the Panasonic DMC TZ10 due to its Leica lens. But at the end the Sony won due to visibly better picture quality in poor lighting conditions and also the camera shake compensation is "how do they do that" good as is the backlight compensation. I also make more use of the panorama feature than I expected to and the way the menus work I find very intuitive and clear. You can manually override pretty much everything if you wish and there are loads of presets for different scenarios. It's very difficult to take an out of focus, blurred or badly exposed picture.
It has HD video capability which I've used a couple of times, though I'm not a big video user, and the videos are excellent quality. The shop assistant told me if videos are my thing there are better cameras than the Sony. HD Video of course also means an 8 minute video takes up around 700MB on the memory card.
All in all a great package for 279 Euros and I'm absolutely delighted with it.
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>> . The shop assistant told me if videos are my thing there are better cameras than the Sony. >>
Only a full HD camcorder would be noticably better.
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>Sony HX5V, very clever features.
>What is your budget?
No budget really since they all seem to be sub-£500.
Looking at the group test posted by lancara it appears that my shortlist should be the Sony HX55, Samsung HZ35W and Casio FH100.
I like the extra zoom of the Samsung but the 1080 and smaller size of the Sony is tempting too.
Decisions, decisions!
Kevin...
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>You might find this "Compact Super Zoom" group test useful.
Thanks, browsing it now.
Kevin...
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Compact HD Camera - BiggerBadderDave
