Need a camera for your honeymoon?

As a wedding video/photographer guy I get asked to recomend cameras all the time, he’s a few recomendations from me:

Considerations when buying a camera for your honeymoon:

1. Size, you dont wat to be carrying around a kilo of camera technology under the hot sun in Barbados or Dingle.
2. HD video, you dont want to carrying an extra camcorder so why not get a camera that shoots good quality high definition video?
3. Waterproof, this is subject to to users usual holiday activities so I’ll tag this one at the end.
4. Has to be value for money, you have just spent your last few bob on an expensive wedding cake or dress or meal for a distant relative who you have never met and didn’t like the food anyway so it might be nice to get some decent value.

SO you want a compact, value for money camera that shoots HD video and might be waterproof.

Choice One: Panasonic Lumix TZ8 €245

Lumix TZ8 Compact Camera - Massive Punch

This is the most largest camera I’m recommending and at €245 is not cheap, however it has a great optical zoom shoots 720p HD video and has a 12 MPixel sensor that works great in low light. It has a lens from Leica – probably the best lens manufacturer in the world. It also has full manual controls but more importantly it has an intelligent auto feature that will assess a scene and pick the appropriate settings for you, a great point and shoot. Oh yeah the battery last’s forever and it uses inexpensive SDHC card’s to record, class 10 SDHC cards are about €40 for a 16GB card. I recommended this one to a friend of mine and now two or three of his mates bought one. Small camera – massive punch.

Choice Two: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX550 €150

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX550

Samller than the TZ8 this camera has just been released but it looks the business, I bought the previous version the FX500 for my wife and she loves it, click it in to intelligent auto and it always takes a great picture or when I pick it up I can use the manual controls for shutter and aperture to get some great results. The great thing about this camera is its touch screen controls that work brilliantly. You can look at an image touch a subject in the distance and the camera will focus on it, it’s class.
This camera now shoots in 720p HD video and has a 12.7 MPixel but probably it best feature is the size and robustness of the camera, it’s a solid metal little fella that will take being bashed around, even in the darkest depths of my wife’s handbag.

Choice Three: Surprise, Surprise another Lumix it’s the waterproof Panasonic FT2 €336

lumix DMC-FT2

The most expensive camera I’m recommending and I have had the least experince with this camera but if your after a waterproof camera you wont do much better than this little gem, it’s Waterproof to 3m, Freeze-proof to -10℃, Shockproof  and Dust-proof! The zoom is not as good as the other cameras and its fetures are slighly less but it still has 720P HD video and the excellent Leica lens. A great little solid camera for beach bums available in a range of colours. All cameras available from pixmania.ie and camerabox.co.uk