Best 'back-of-concert' Camera with extra Zoom for around £100

[snadge]

a friend of mine has asked for advice on which camera would be best to use at concerts where he is nearer the back than the front for around £100... I told him for that price the chances are it wont be very good.. but upon looking there are some cheap options that get good reviews..

ones I looked at:

£124 - Fuji FinePix F80EXR (12mp / 10x)
£97 - Fujifilm FinePix JZ500 (14mp / 10x)
£97 - Casio Exilim EX-H5 (12mp / 10x)

i done some quick reviewing and while the F80EXR is best I think he would be more suited to the JZ500 which has more megapixels for further cropping images later and has better reviews than the Casio...

can anyone else help here?

I have told him he can also get Panasonic TZ-8 for about £165 which is way better but its more money

thanks in advance

 

[mastertrinity]

it's the lens really that's the big problem, the aperture needs to be wide enough to let light in for sharp shots, I'll doubt you'll do much good unless you double that budget and go for something like a Fuji s9600.

 

[Sony_SoFar]

What about looking at the Panasonic TZ series? Big zooms. maybe the tz5?

 

[snadge]

I own a Panasonic TZ7 and its truly amazing ... ive told him he can get one for £149 refurbished or a TZ8 for £165 brand new which is the same but has 12mp instead of 10mp

I will see if he can up his budget a bit

 

[Sony_SoFar]

I keep looking at the tz5 on ebay, only want a cheap one but with a good zoom!

 

[snadge]

he has upped his fund to £150 or thereabouts...

any ideas?

im thinking Panasonic TZ8 (12mp / 12x) for £165 new

whats others thoughts?

 

[futureal33]

Ive just bought a TZ10 off Amazon for £179 and it is really good, the 12x zoom is fantastic and it does HD video etc, slightly more advanced features than the tz8 from the reviews I read..
Though I might be selling it to fund my 5D project as I already have a P&S cam which performs pretty well for when I use it!

 

[snadge]

yeah I suggested that too him
not 100% sure but differences are better screen (460,000 dots as opposed to 230,000 on T8) , twin processors & AVCHD video recording mode (as opposed to only M-JPEG which eats storage and requires high speed cards) - im not sure but i think the TZ10 has GPS - the TZ10 is the upgrade from TZ7 , and the TZ8 is the upgrade from TZ6

I have the TZ7 silver and its amazing - just a TZ10 but with 10mp instead of 12mp (and MegaIOS instead of PowerIOS)