digital camera question

[danhodkinson]

afternoon all, i am after a new digital camera,and i have one of these 2 in mind:
either the Panasonic Lumix FS15
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Lumix-FS15-Digital-Camera/dp/B001T0GZPO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1262034552&sr=1-1

or the Samsung ES55
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-ES55-Digital-Camera-Optical/dp/B001UE8AYI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1262034225&sr=1-4

now i would imagine the panasonic is better than the samsung as its twice the price i am just wondering how much better. is it worth paying double for, i would use it as my main camera, holidays, events, nights out.. the main thing i need a good camera for is at night time and zooming..my previous nikon took so many blurry photos at night that im on the verge of throwing it in the bin!

any advice would be much appreciated!
thanks
dan

[Acheron]

The Panasonic has a 5x optical zoom vs a 3x on the Samsung. Despite having the same size sensor, the Panasonic has about a 10% higher pixel density so theoretically it should start with a better image. The Panasonic's wide angle is better so you will fit more into your shots and you will not need to go back as far to shoot objects up close. Image stabilization is optical on the Panasonic and digital on the Samsung. Optical is what you want. The Panasonic's macro focus range is 5mm vs 10mm on the Samsung, so the Panasonic wins again. The Panny offers more resolutions for video and a better frame rate. The Panasonic's LCD is a tad larger.

To recap the features most important to you:
- Optical zoom is better on the Panasonic
- Panny uses optical stabilization (OIS) vs digital stabilization on the Samsung. OIS is essential if you want to avoid blurriness caused by shaky hands (all of our hands shake to some degree, whether we realize it or not)


btw, the Samsung (known as the SL102 here) goes for $99 USD (£62.49) and the Panasonic goes for about $150 USD (£93.74) so Amazon UK's price seems a little high on that Panasonic.

I would definitely go for the Panny but I think you can find a better price. As for nighttime shots, the bigger the sensor, the easier time you will have getting solid nighttime shots. Both of these cams have a 1/2.33 " sensor (6.13 x 4.60 mm). A Nikon D3000 DSLR has a (23.6 x 15.8 mm) sensor for comparison.

[danhodkinson]

i couldnt find the panny at a better price but i signed up for the amazon credit card to get a £15 discount and had £25 in vouchers so it brought it down to £90 which was pretty good.. so i went for that!
bought an 8gig sdhc class 6 card so hope that does a decent job for it!

thanks for the advice
dan

[Acheron]

Congrats on the new cam. :)