Panasonic DMC-LC33

[StrongBadia]

What are your opinions on this camera? I'm looking from a mostly point-and-shoot camera that will also take good photos of my trip to the Bahamas next week. This camera looks like it has the best feature set for the ~$199 price point. Any other recommendations?

Thanks

 

[Gondi]

As the hoarde to follow i'm sure will suggest, The Canon A60/A70 would seem to be the main competetors here.

If you have any plans to get a little more into the process, the A series is much more flexable, allowing you control over the Ap/Shutter speed if you want. Most of the other features seem similar. Image quality of the A series is almost certainly as good or better.

 

[blip]

If it is the one I'm thinking of, it's a great camera... good lens (the Leica lens is great probably better than the one on my beloved Canon A70, thoug not by much), not horrible features.

If I remember correctly it doesn't have manual controls though... which is a deal breaker for me at least because (IMHO) I've never seen an automatic camera that exposes half as well as someone who even has a vague clue about what they are doing with manual controls. Personally I'd go insane without at least having apeture priority controls.

Also, it lacks some of the control of the A60/70 beyond traditional "manual" controls. For example, the A70 has a very handy exposure compensation feature that (if I remember correctly) the Panasonic lacks.

 

[StrongBadia]

Well I decided on the DMC-LC33. I was able to find it locally at a Wolf Camera for $206. Thats cheaper than anywhere I could find on the net. I chose this one because it uses SD (which my laptop also uses) and the reviews elsewhere said it was phenomenal. I'll post some pictures tonight.