need help w/ camera recommendations...

[zaja]

We are finally ready to buy a camera for our upcoming trip. Looking for something that takes sharp night pics, shows are important, so i guess moving objects at night should be considered. Also would like something that has great zoom capabilities. (This was my biggest pet-peeve about my last digital camera - not near enough zoom). Would any p&s fit the bill or am I only going to find these qualities in a slr? Really hoping for a p&s. Had heard about the Olympus Ultra Zoom 18x, is this worth looking into? Thanks for your advice.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

We are finally ready to buy a camera for our upcoming trip. Looking for something that takes sharp night pics, shows are important, so i guess moving objects at night should be considered. Also would like something that has great zoom capabilities. (This was my biggest pet-peeve about my last digital camera - not near enough zoom). Would any p&s fit the bill or am I only going to find these qualities in a slr? Really hoping for a p&s. Had heard about the Olympus Ultra Zoom 18x, is this worth looking into? Thanks for your advice.

If low-light/night pics are your primary concern, and if you aren't willing to go the DSLR route, you'd be best-off looking at the Fuji S6000fd. It's got a bigger sensor that performs much better at high ISO than those of other P&S superzoom cameras.

I'd stay away from that Olympus if low-light is your priority ... it seems to be noisier than even the Canon/Sony superzooms which are, themselves, outperformed by the Fuji.

Any DSLR (especially with a prime lens) will take better pictures in low light than even the Fuji, but DSLR zoom lenses get expensive and if they aren't "fast" (ability to operate with a large aperture) they won't work very well in low-light, either. Fast zoom lenses are expensive -- usually more than 2x the cost of a bridge P&S!