Which Camera to Get?

I realise you probably get a lot of these threads, so I'll be brief.

I need the camera to have a decent focal length, as I will need to take pics of mixers and closeups in general. As well as this I would like to get back into photography (scenic) so a good quality camera for panoramic would be nice as well. I suppose an all-rounder would suit me best. As long as its decent.

My budget is NZ$500 or ~US$320. I've had a very quick look into the Kodak Z740, and this seems to be ok... Any suggestions/comments?

thanks for your time as I know these type of threads can get boring.

isp

Well, I'd suggest some research. my budget was around the same as yours, and I've been looking at two cameras, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 and the Canon Powershot A620.
Both of them get good reviews and have trades offs. The dmc-fz5 has a 12x optical zoom which is nice, but its only 5mp. The a620 is a 7+mp with only 4x optical zoom. Anyways just do some research on a good camera review site that does their own studies.