need help choosing digicam with zoom

[david price]

I'm a newbie and I need some help choosing a digital camera, we need something not too large and rather easy to use because we will be using for family activities. Any suggestions will be gladly appreciated. I read the reviews on Amazon but I'm not sure what I'm doing.The canon A710, Lumix Dmc-Lz7k or the Kodaks 7610 &7612 are on my list.

[ac.smith]

Amazon's user reviews are not really good guides. I'd start by reading the reading the reviews of the cameras on the Steve's Best Camera list: http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html

[david price]

Thanks for the link AC but the Fz7k is dated and there is an FZ8 out now and I believe it's so new that steve has not yetcompleted the review . I need to take a look at the specs to see how the differencesaffect the casual userAnyway I'm not familiar with the Kodak digicams and I wrote the wrong model numbers in the original post, I think they are the z712 & z600. I also haven't figured out how to delete a duplicate post

thanks

david

[ac.smith]

david price wrote:

Thanks for the link AC but the Fz7k is dated and there is an FZ8 out now and I believe it's so new that steve has not yetcompleted the review . I need to take a look at the specs to see how the differencesaffect the casual userAnyway I'm not familiar with the Kodak digicams and I wrote the wrong model numbers in the original post, I think they are the z712 & z600. I also haven't figured out how to delete a duplicate post

thanks

david

Steve has reviewed the FZ8, http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/fz8.html, and although he seems to have given it a fairly favorable review he seems to have chosen not to put it on his Best Camera list. He has added the FZ50 to the list even though he hasn't completed the review.

The Kodak cameras that you would likely be interested in are the Z612 and the Z712. Steve has not tested the Z712 but I have seen enough user photos compared with my own Z612 (which is on the list) to believe that it is a solid upgrade over the Z612 by virtue of improving on the high ISO capabilities of the Z612 and adding in-camera panoramic stitching capability.

By the way I used my Z612 Tuesday to shoot an outdoors political rally taking 192 photos in a 2 hr. period of time, all where properly exposed and only three where blurry although I haven't had time to analyze the causes. A number of pictures were taken holding the camera over my head.

Finally, know that newer is not always improved and newer doesn't always translate to better image quality.

[david price]

Thanks for the link A C, the kodak z612 is a camera that I'll go and touch. here is a link with photos shot with the z712 http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/I think all you have to do is hit the slideshow

thanks

David