What camera

[jackatesme]

Thinking of putting a camera on my christmas list.Would appreciate any advice you experts can give on best choice.Something around £150 and as i live in wales would like to be able to take panoramic views. Must be bridge camera as i cant afford extra lenses.Been looking on e-bay and seen cameras advertised panoramic but shutter speed 1/4 second how can this work.Are refurbished cameras any good.
Thanks in advance.
john

[reworht]

Originally Posted by jackatesme

Thinking of putting a camera on my christmas list.Would appreciate any advice you experts can give on best choice.Something around £150 and as i live in wales would like to be able to take panoramic views. Must be bridge camera as i cant afford extra lenses.Been looking on e-bay and seen cameras advertised panoramic but shutter speed 1/4 second how can this work.Are refurbished cameras any good.
Thanks in advance.
john

There are a heck of a lot to choose from, and recommendations are often down to what people already have and their experiences with it.
On that basis, I'm now on my second Fuji FinePix bridge camera and have nothing but praise for them. At your budget, you'd be able to get into something like this. One of the things that works well with mine is the panorama setting, which allows you to take 4 photographs whilst panning left to right (or vice versa) - and then the camera's software stitches them seamlessly together - as this example below:



Most of the Fuji range also includes a traditional view finder as well as an LCD screen - VERY useful for bright sunny days where the latter can be difficult to see clearly. I'm sure others will be along soon with other suggestions - I would strongly suggest you try to get into somewhere where you can actually handle the camera and get a feel for its weight etc.

[A19_Graham]

That Fuji is a hell of a buy for the price.

I have the HS10 which was the first of this kind, and its still a great camera, and it 2010 cost close on £400.

Very easy to use too.

[reworht]

Originally Posted by A19_Graham

That Fuji is a hell of a buy for the price.

I have the HS10 which was the first of this kind, and its still a great camera, and it 2010 cost close on £400.

Very easy to use too.

I've started emptying money boxes to see how close I can get

[Canonite]

Depends if you really really need a larger SLR style bridge camera or an advanced compact. At this price range it's often a trade off between image quality and zoom range.
I've owned a lot of cameras and always swore by the Canon Powershot SX range as I found them easy to use, but very capable at getting the shots. Lots of specific accessories too for them unlike other brands which dont have a threaded lens barrel for filters etc.

That said, I have recently bought a few of Panasonics TZ series cameras and when I need a pocket sized camera I take my TZ35. If you want a not too ridiculous zoom range paired with decent resolution I'd look at some reviews of the latest TZ series cameras from Panasonic.
If you do want a big zoom like 30x and more, try to find a camera with a CMOS sensor as they'll be better at handling artefacts like noise and chromatic abberations.

[Gate Keeper]

Bridge cameras are useful as they are fairly versatile and host many handy features such as image stability and superzoom abilities with video. I have a Canon 40HS SX which can be picked up used for £150 -£180

It has a viewfinder which is not through the lens and there is a delay between taking the shot and the shutter worker which operates at up to thousands a second all the way down to a measly I sec, plus there is no remote and it lacks stereo sound. Apart from that it is a nice piece of kit and I take it everywhere as it is a lightweight. 3 sample photos. The first 2 taken with the Canon Bridge. The last one was taken using a Nikon 5000 DSLR. A panning shot which the Canon would have struggled with.

I hope this helps....