HX100V...I'm struggling with it.

I bought this camera for amongst other things the 30x zoom. I enloyed the Panasonic fz18 18x zoom and iq so much i thought the hx100v was a step up....not so sure now

another poster was complaining about the painterly effect her images were coming out of the camera with, i also find similar.

the unscientific comparison bellow is of both cameras at full zoom in automatic mode
fz18 intelligent auto
hx100 intelligent auto shooting

by the way since i bought the camera its been cloudy so haven't had the chance to shoot the moon...i am not holding out much hope for the result though.

any assistance would be welcome