Stuck In Neutral

We went over to Augusta this morning so I could hand hold the leading candidates for the new digicam because Aiken doesn’t have a Circuit City. Pretty much decided to go with the Panasonic DMC-T3Z and holding it and looking at it nearly clinched the deal. The Canon SD800 IS was real nice too. It was a lot more pocketable than the Panasonic, but that 10x optical zoom kicked but. Didn’t buy it at the store because they had the price as $349 and it was listed as $289 on the web on Saturday.

There used to be a Winn-Dixie in this strip shopping center, but it went out of business a while back. Last time we were there it was still empty, but this time it was filled with an hhgregg store. I went in and poked around while Donna bought some beads at the Michael’s next door. They had the Panasonic for $319, but I still wasn’t buying, knowing it was cheaper on the web.

We ended up at the Atlanta Bread Company for lunch where we split a House Salad w/Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing and a Pressed Chicken Sandwich. Water and a small Coke to drink.

When we got back home I went online and found out that CC had bumped the online price back up to $349. Well, it as got to be cheaper somewhere out there. Found it on New Egg for $289 and they are tossing in a 1 Gig SD card for free. Yippee! While checking it out, I notice that this item is covered by their “Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy” which basically means you can swap for another of the same, but you *ain’t* getting your money back. This makes me very nervous, so I start reading reviews to reassure myself. Reading some of the posts on Steve’s Digicam’s Forum I see someone mention that it is too bad this camera doesn’t offer any manual control. Huh?!? I thought it did.

Turns out I misread something and in fact the TZ3 doesn’t have any manual exposure control. Too bad too because this is a deal breaker. I guess I will have to settle for the runner-up, the Canon SD800 IS, but I can’t bring myself to pull the trigger even though it is only $20 more at New Egg and the same 1 Gig SD card deal applies. I have been seduced by the 10x optical zoom on the Panasonic, the Canon’s paltry 3.8x will not satisfy me.

The CFO authorizes a bump up in the spending level in hopes I can find another contender. Believe it or not, there is not much out there at the $400-450 level. I guess we are getting too close to DSLR territory and manufacturers don’t want to offer anything that might cannibalize those sales. There is one intriguing possibility, the Panasonic LX2. 10MP, 16×9 shooting format and lots of manual control, but there is that wimpy 4x zoom again. Plus, what’s with the no built in lens cap? Why not replace the built in flash with those cute little flash cubes? Another possibility is the Canon G7. Its a 10MP camera too, with a 6x zoom, but it starts at 35mm not 28mm and the thing is a brick at nearly 12 oz.

I will probably wait for 3-4 months before trying to buy a camera. Things happen quickly in the electronic world and my perfect camera could be in the pipeline right now. If worse comes to worse the cost of buying the Panasonic T3Z might come down enough that I’d swallow the no manual exposure control thing.