tvordlj | (no subject)

I've been comparing user reviews and getting more and more confused, re digital cameras. Each one i like that i look up reviews for, has good and bad and my own opinion of the cameras have plusses and minuses too. One is a Panasonic 5 mp with a 10x zoom which i really do like. The drawbacks are that there is no optical viewfinder and it's a lithium ion battery pack. The other one is a Canon A710 IS. It's 7 MP, a 6x zoom and it uses regular AA batteries (rechargeables) which i like. But on the minus side, it has a lot more features than i need, and no on screen battery monitor, also has no "last photo review" unless you change the mode to replay and i do like that feature. The user reviews on dpreview.com have an equal amount of "i love this camera" and "the low light photos have too much noise". I looked at the user manual for both and the one for the Canon seems a lot more complicated than it needs to be. I"m leaning to the Panasonic for the Zoom especially. The battery pack does put me off a bit and a spare one ain't cheap. The Panasonic is on a clearance price for $299.99 at The Source (though i'm reluctant to buy from them) or $329.99 from Future Shop though they'll meet the other price. The Canon is a bit more expensive but .... it's a Canon. Both have Image stabilizer.

Confused.

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I have the FZ10 and Tim has the FZ20. I totally agree with what DiggerJohn says. I haven't taken as many pics per battery charge as he has. I always take the largest size available, with the highest quality. I suppose I could get a lot more per battery charge if I reduced one or both parameters.

I don't think the size and quality matters as far as how long the battery lasts, that just affects how many pics can reside on the memory card. I think. Possibly it may take a smidge more battery to write a bigger file i suppose. All this is great info!

I forget if I mentioned this but it usually takes less than an hour to charge the battery, too.