Originally Posted by Tibsy:
“It all comes down to what you want to use the camera for, and more to the point, how much control you want to have over the shots your taking.
I'm pretty sure the TZ3 doesn't have any manual controls, so what you point at, is what you will shoot.
If you get a camera with manual cotrols, that you can adjust all sorts from focus, aperture, shutter speeds and so on...
If you're just taking shots on days out and stuff, then I would say go with a TZ3, but if you want to get more into photography, and experiment more, then an SLR is the way to go - but you msut bear in mind that lenses for them cost alot of money..usually the same price as the camera itself”
The TZ3 doesn't offer much in the way of manual control, no.
But ...... I don't think thats the camera he's referring to. I suspect it's something more along the lines of the FZ50.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_..._fz50_pg2.html
That does give you a lot of manual control.
Steves digicams loved it! (Skip to the conclusion page to see what I mean) and reading up on it, I'm not surprised. It sounds like an excellent camera. The manual zoom control is the icing on the cake for a pro-sumer camera.
If you need the long term flexability and massive in-depth control of a dSLR then go down that route ..... but it'll be more expensive long term.
The FZ50 does almost everything a dSLR does, and it does it damn well by the sound of it. I use a similar, but slightly lower specced, Canon and it's a fantastic camera. The FZ50 sounds like it's even better.
Certainly wouldn't be a bad choice if you ask me ....