Which Camera to Get?

[isp_of_doom]

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

[chessmastor]

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.