I recently bought a Panasonic TZ3, currently $200 on Amazon.
It has a great lens.
Wide angle lens (28 - 280mm).
10x zoom.
Very low barrel distortion.
Image stabilization.
Pretty compact for a 10x zoom.
Nice, big, bright LCD.
This makes for a very versatile camera.
I was trying to decide between this and a Canon G7($549).
The Canon has a truly amazing LCD display. Really bright and clear.
Plus the Canon has full manual control.
For me, one problem with the Panasonic, is that although there is some manual control, you don't have direct control over
f-stop and shutter speed, and the LCD preview display is "not what you see is what you get". So it is really puzzling to me why changing some settings does change the LCD preview display. It makes you think you've have "what you see is what you get", when you don't have this.
The post-shot display is accurate though.
Plus, if you want to really get a great post-shot display then you are going to need a display like the Canon G7.
If I want to capture some shot optimally, I have to take like 20 pictures with different settings to see what I am going to get.
Plus I had to take a couple hundred shots to understand how changing various settings would affect f-stop and shutter speed.
In the end though I love the Panasonic and have no regrets.
On my last vacation I took so many shots that I could never take on the Canon, because the lens doesn't have as versatile a range.
Plus, I find most of my shots are just point and shoot and it works great for this.
