First decent Compact

Hi everyone, brand new to the forum =]

Right, basically I like the idea of taking decent photos, but the only problem is I can't afford an SLR.

I need the camera to do the following:

- HD Video with good sound quality (mic connector?)
- Fairly decent low light (Not a big thing though)
- Obviously great image quality
- Good zoom (10x or more if possible)
- Good at closeups
- Like to be able to play with shutter speeds and be relatively quick at taking photo's.
- Image Stabilisation.

Thats about it really, I will mainly be taking pictures of cars, woodland scenes, and flowers close up etc.

I would like to be able to fiddle with the settings on the camera as well.

If someone could help me out and suggest a few cameras I would be very grateful. There are so many to choose from.

My budget is about £200 - £250. Tops. I hope this is enough.

Thanks a lot.

EliotG.

I think I should either go for the Sony Cyber-shot W290 or the Panasonic Lumix LZ7.

What do you think? Any alternatives?

Cripple.

W290 spec doesn't say it has manual modes.
So playing with shutter speeds may be difficult.
Seems to be Jessops only?

Jessops have the Sony H50 for the same price, and that has shutter priority mode so you can play with the settings on that one.

Panasonic LZ7 is an old model, with less than the 10x zoom you're after.
The newer TZ7 is outside your price range.

Being the impatient sod I am I have ordered the w290 for £180. I couldn't really see myself paying more than this and it looks the be a very good buy for the price.

I'll try it out and see what I think.

Cheers

EliotG.