Panasonic GF3 or "superzoom" FZ48

[robert_cyrus]

Hi
I have 2 older model Sony cameras, one is a basic dinky fits in a pocket p&s with 3 mega pixels. The other I guess is (was) a superzoom 12x optical camera, much more chunky, definitely does not fit in your pocket. I also bought a telephoto lens to attach to this which gives me 20x zoom (600 odd mm if I recall correctly??). But it's a faff to attach/remove and the last set of photos I took with it seemed to be v slightly out of focus so I guess it must be faulty.

We probably use the dinky p&s more often simply due to its size.

I have £250 for a potential replacement / upgrade. I was thinking of buying a digital camcorder but I'm leaning more towards a proper camera which can also take simple home movies.

My £250 either buys me a panasonic fz48 or the tiny gf3 including a 12-42mm lens. I suspect due to the size of the latter this would probably get used more (even if the 42mm lens is in another pocket), so for that reason it might be the better buy. But I also like the existing Sony with the 12x zoom so that makes me lean towards the larger FZ48 which has even more zoom than I have now - no more need for that telephoto - but this would always be slung in a camera bag so might not be something I'd carry around all the time. Then again we still have our existing dinky Sony for that.

I think either camera would be an upgrade on what we have now wrt photo quality.

I keep switching between the 2, can anyone make any sense of this? or is it ultimately something only I can decide.

thanks for any input. Robert

 

[Dave J]

Ultimately it will be down to you but if I may add...

Save a few more quid (£325-ish) and go for a Panaonic FZ 150 which will do everything you could want without requiring any particular expertise and keep the little Sony for impromptu shots. I've been absolutely blown away by what can be achieved for such a relatively small outlay.

 

[robert_cyrus]

Thanks for the suggestion.
After spending more time doing research, I've gone for a slightly off tangent option - a Panasonic TZ18 "superzoom" compact. 14 megapixels, 16x optical zoom (24-384mm). My conclusion was we tend to use the dinky Sony (DSCW35 7mega pixels & 3x zoom 14-114mm) more than the bulkier one (DSC-H2). The Panasonic will give us more zoom than we have now, fits in the pocket, well within budget so maybe we'll look at something a little better (bridge camera perhaps) in the new year.

 

[cliffpatte]

The TZ18 is small, but you won't notice much improvement from one small sensor camera to the next to be honest. Where you would see a remarkable improvement would be from something with a bigger sensor with lower noise - eg the Canon G1X