Shoutbox

Hey folks! Next month I'll be heading to New Zealand and I'll be looking for a camera as soon as I get there.
I can't recall anyone from NZ here, but perhaps there might be one or two of these "internationally-known" stores that you could recommend.

I was told about this Dick Smith, but the online store doesn't seem very attractive. They have few models to choose, and I don't know if the prices are good, I'd need some comparison with other stores.

I'm looking for a point & shoot, no need of one zillion megapixels, but 720p @ 30 fps would be very interesting, and short-distance macro as well (less than 10 cm / 4 inches).

No recommendations on store, but I like the Panasonic Lumix point and shoots a lot. I've had it for a while (TZ5 I believe TZ7) and my parents recently got the GPS enabled version (TZ9?) TZ10. Very happy with both, does decent 720p for what you're paying. Models numbers can differ per region.

I have a Panasonic and I do like it. Great quality, even for videos (despite of not being HD).

This TZ9 looks interesting, great optical zoom (12x), but I couldn't find on Panasonic's site, maybe it's outdated. There are other equivalent models, however. And a little bit expensive, though.

Buy one before you go? If not I'd probably go with Dick Smith.

I'm not a star at remembering model numbers. I have thePanasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 (or ZS3), my parents have the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 (or DMC-ZS7). The TZ10 is indeed pretty expensive atm. The TZ7 is an older model (might be a lot cheaper now) but not that much different in specs except for the lack of GPS, but I'm not sure if they're still selling it.

At the Dick Smith make sure to choose 'All Digital Cameras' instead of 'Digital Cameras - Compact'. A lot of compact cameras do not show up in the latter.

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Originally posted by Phillip
Buy one before you go? If not I'd probably go with Dick Smith.

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Because here we only have few models, and they're expensive.

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Originally posted by Menthix
At the Dick Smith make sure to choose 'All Digital Cameras' instead of 'Digital Cameras - Compact'. A lot of compact cameras do not show up in the latter.

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Yes, I did that.

For cameras, I buy and highly recommend Canon.  Every time I've researched and reviewed this preference, Canon has consistently come out on top. 

You still want to look at reviews for specific models you are considering though.  There are two sites worth reading on this subject:

http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

Pick a camera that they are giving good overall reviews to.  Pay attention to any shortcomings they've noted and decide whether those are things you can live with, and I expect you will be happy.

I bought the Casio FH100 last summer.