Help me choose plesae Pierces....

[OCLadies]

Novice here looking for point & shoot that will give me best quality photos of my upcoming European trip. Need one that is not only good with zoom but when I'm in one of those dark, dank cathedrals and want to shoot the ceilings, stained glass, etc. and flash is not allowed....which will give me the best, clearest shots???? I'm considering the FujiFinePix S8100fd, the S1000fd or the Panasocia FZ18. Can you help to me choose? Thank you!!

[pierces]

Novice here looking for point & shoot that will give me best quality photos of my upcoming European trip. Need one that is not only good with zoom but when I'm in one of those dark, dank cathedrals and want to shoot the ceilings, stained glass, etc. and flash is not allowed....which will give me the best, clearest shots???? I'm considering the FujiFinePix S8100fd, the S1000fd or the Panasocia FZ18. Can you help to me choose? Thank you!!

 

The three cameras you mentioned are point & shoot, but fall into the "superzoom" class because of the long zoom range and while small, are not very pocketable. The two Fuji cameras you mentioned are new enough that there aren't any real in-depth reviews and the Panasonic was well-reviewed, but got bad marks for low-light. Since the P&S and superzoom cameras are generally poor in low-light, I would assume that the Fujis would perform like their preceding models and not do so well either.

 

If you are planning to visit a lot of places that will be dim and shadowy and don't mind a little extra size, you may want to consider one of the entry-level DSLRs. They are quite compact and have tremendous low-light performance compared to a superzoom or P&S. The Sony A200, Nikon D60, and Canon Rebel Xi are all noted for great low-light performance and start at about $500 with a lens. They all have a Program mode that makes them very point-and-shootable.

 

If you're not ready to make the jump to a DSLR, you would probably do best with the Panasonic FZ-18 or Canon S5IS since they do better in low light than most.

 

There's my 2¢...feel free to ask any other questions if you need to!

 

BTW, have a great time on your trip...I have a little Europe-trip envy!

 

Dave