Anyone go any thoughs as to which to go for? Are the Fuji CCDs any good? FireBall
Well, you're probably gonna find opinions varying from brilliant to utter rubbish ;-) I've found this with just about any product that I want to buy, not just cameras. I wanted a decent 'prosumer' camera and decided on the Fuji S7000. Got it from Amazon for £440. There were a lot of reviews talking of over-compression of JPG images and noise in the images, but actual owners' reviews were nearly all positive. In the end, I looked at users photos and judged from that; they all looked excellent to me and I am well pleased with the results I'm getting - lots of 'features' to play with as well. I think a lot depends on whether you're looking at a photo as a photo or looking at it for faults! Try and look at some photos on the web yourself. As a starter, here is a respected web site which has reviews (and photos!) of many digital cameras as well as a useful discussion forum http://www.steves-digicams.com/ Good Luck!
The S7000's monster file size is certainly as good, at pixel level, as the new crop of 8 megapixel cameras - but 12 megapixel. You need to take real care when shooting, and use a tripod with the lens at its longest length if the light is poor, to see how good the results are. Otherwise camera shake (very slight) tends to get in the way. David