Help choosing new point and shoot

[andy63]

For last 6 years i have been using an Olympus c 770 ultra zoom camera as my point and shoot and have been pleased with the results. It has now stopped working and i am looking for a replacement, in the passed i have compared it with pictures taken on friends cameras, cannon ixus 200 and a nickon coolpix from 2009 (cant remember exact model) but wasn't to impressed with IQ compared to mine.
So now i need some advice on what to buy, its going to be mainly used in auto mode by myself and my wife. I would like to have some manual controls to mess around with when i get time, at least 10x zoom, was initially wanting one to fit into pocket but since looking have started to think about a bridge camera. Been looking at pany tz10 and fz45, i know they both use the same size sensor ( camera tech knowledge very limited ), so is IQ going to be the same, just longer zoom on fz45. other cameras being consider are, Cannon ixus 1000 sx130, Sony dsc hx5, fuji 300exr seen some good results off this one but believe they were achied with a lot of fiddling with settings.
Any help and suggestions much appreciated .

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Andy,

Welcome to the CiC forums from me.

I'm not familiar with most of those models, but personally I'd recommend you get one with a RAW capability for the odd time you might want better quality (and have time to PP) - I have made the assumption there that you shoot jpg at the moment (or did before it broke).

I assume you want a pocketable one rather than a bridge camera (i.e. a DSLR shaped P&S)?

I have a friend who bought a TZ10 this year and he is very happy with it.
I saw his holiday snaps and the image quality was good, as were his picture taking skills - I keep trying to get him to take up photography and join here.

Cheers,

[andy63]

Thanks for your comments Dave.
I am off into town now with my own sd card to try a few cameras out and then study the results at home.