I don't know if I agree that the Fuji S5100 is the 'best bang for your buck' exactly. I concidered purchasing one while I was in the market for a super zoom camera and wound up going with the Panasonic instead. It justified the extra bit on the pricetag for me, at least. This all comparing the FZ-20 from Panasonic to Fuji's S5100.
- Fuji's has 4 megapixels, Panasonic has 5.[/*]
- Panasonic has a Flash Hotshoe, Fuji doesn't.[/*]
- Fuji's resolution maxes at 2272x1704, Panasonic 2560x1920[/*]
- Fuji's zoom, 37-370mm. Panasonic, 36-432mm.[/*]
- Fuji's digizoom, 2.2x. Panasonic, 4x.[/*]
- Fuji doesn't have image stablization, Panasonic does.[/*]
- Fuji's LCD is 1.5", Panasonic's 2"[/*]
- Panasonic's EVF has 15k more pixels[/*]
- Panasonic has more Color Modes[/*]
- Fuji has 4 Scene Modes, Panasonic has 9
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There's other things I took into account as well, overall look, the image stablization, the Leica lens, and the additonal zoom. Fuji's digital zoom I believe is effected by the resolution you're shooting at, but I saw it quoted in the specifications at 2.2x while elsewhere it says it can go up to 3.6x. But the zoom is also supposed to be a direct crop from the image rather then really blowing it up. I'm not sure if the interpolation type zoom Panasonic uses or the crop Fuji uses is more clear. I know Panasonic also retains the f2.8 through the full zoom while Fuji goes to 3.2. I also much prefer the Panasonic's Manual Focus Assist, where it magnifies the center of your screen so that you can more closely focus on your subject and fine tune your manual focusing. I've personally had bad experience with my AA type digital camera chewing through Rechargable batteries, so I much prefer the Panasonic's Li-Ion rechargable pack. But I haven't found an actual measure of how the two cameras compare on their respective battery life.
All in all, my final judgement to go with the Panasonic was that if I was going to spend a good chunk of money and invest in a nice camera, I wasn't going to try and cheap out by fifty or a hundred dollars and settle for a little less. And I don't regret a dime of the money I spent on my FZ-20, it's been an awesome camera for me. I've done shots hanging out the window of a moving car, in the mountains in the rain (with protection of course), on the beach, in bright sun, sunrise, sunset, no light, dim light, and found it to be an excellent camera for everything i've done with it so far.
