Thanks all, off to spend an evening on ebay

I used to have a Fuji S9500, which did sterling service for many thousands of photos until it died last autumn. I’ve spent the last six months in DSLR confusion, culminating in getting a posh compact instead, an Olympus XZ-1. Very impressive! May get a DSLR in the future when I have the time/money/inclination to dedicate to getting more adept at photography.

If you don’t need lots of zoom (superzoom bridge or DSLR/micro 4/3 and big lens) or very quick responses (DLSR or micro 4/3), then the XZ-1 seems a good and compact compromise. Not cheap but nice. Can get quite SLR-like with depth of field thanks to the big aperture throughout the zoom range.

My main “gripe” about the majority of bridge cameras is there is very little benefit in the form factor regards size etc

You know, I am not sure I agree there. I checked out a Nikon one in a shop the other day and whilst it looked fairly SLR ish it was pretty compact really. Very nice to handle, and very quick too. Focused very well in the shop.

This might be a bit less bridgey than you are talking about though – what do we define as ‘bridge’ ?

Olympus – top tip, thanks. I was wondering if that pic was on a safari or at a zoo 🙂

Yeah – for through the glass shots at the zoo I find a black jacket shoved over my head like a cape & against the glass really helps kill the reflections.

I was wondering if that pic was on a safari or at a zoo

I think by people asking I acheived what I was after! 😀

…and notice it’s at ISO800, and people say Olympus’ are crap at higher ISOs… 😳

Yeah I was a bit concerned (see thread from a few weeks ago about fast primes) but then I realised I had auto gradation on all the time which seems to fill high ISO pics with loads more noise than is needed.

I’m also trying to get DXO to work with my E600 by hacking the RAW files, not having much luck so far tho.

found the HS10 for £225 inc 8GB card, card reader, mini tripod, bag and cleaning kit.

Effective lens 24-720mm, records video at 1080p, cmos sensor, shoots RAW, super slow-mo, panorama, motion remove, best shot etc etc etc

for what I need, it seems like a no brainer really, especially at that price

Blimey! Be sure to post some pics 🙂