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Please help HZ30w St600

Started May 1, 2012 | Discussions thread
snake_b Veteran Member • Posts: 4,680
Re: Please help HZ30w St600

jcbrown wrote:

Hello all...I am in need of your expert opinion please. I am trying to decide between a Samsung HZ30w or a ST600. I know these are older models but a local retailer has them both on sale for $150. I have read several reviews and realize they both have their pros and cons. As for picture quality being the most valuable to me, which of these two would offer the best properly set? Which one is actually the better bang for the buck in your expert opinion?

Thank you so very much for reading this and for your help!!! I am a novice and this is a college graduation present for my nephew who is an avid photographer.

If he is truly a photographer, he won't like either. There are lots of caveats to owning these cameras, particularly noise at base ISO and inability to go much past ISO200 without significant degradation of quality.

Ask yourself if he's discerning about photography or not. If you're simply calling him a "photographer" because he likes taking pics with anything he has, maybe he'll be ok, but if he's very discerning and on good equipment, then you have to think in another direction, as these cams aren't made for IQ, to be honest. I have the HZ35w model (again, same as the HZ30+gps) and it's passable only in very bright light.

I'd look for something with less zoom and possibly a bigger, better sensor. For an "avid photographer" I would never recommend anything less than a prosumer class, so perhaps look at the EX1, LX5, Xz1, and so on.

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