Buying a new Casio Camera, but need some advice

[Mutley]

Hi all,

I have an old Canon A40 digital camera, and it has served us well for a while. But its showing its age. It is very slooooow, and difficult to use in anything but bright light conditions. It does take great photos. I'm quite a fan of Canon - I also have a Canon EOS 500n (SLR).

Anyways, I've been researching ultra-compact cameras to replace the A40. This is for both me and my wife to use, so it needs to be slim and light weight, easy to use, be fast, have a zoom, have manual over-ride modes, and take 30fps 640x480 video with sound (unlimited in length).

After much looking around, and trying cameras out, a few of the Casio Exilim cameras seem to be a good bet, and have got some very good reviews. And they're liked by both me and my wife. The question is, which one to pick? I'm a little confused over the different models available:

• Z750
• Z850
• Z600
• S600

I know the 850 is the update to the 750 (which was at the top of my list), but I've read mixed reviews on it, mostly that over all its a better camera than the 750, but it tends to over-expose in bright conditions and suffers from clipping, and its video quality is poor compared to the 750. I don't know how significant that is, when I'm used to to video on the A40...

Then I came across the S600 and Z600. The only real different seems to be no view finder, and a bigger LCD screen. Whats the difference between the S and the Z? Is the 750/850 better than the 600? If so, in what way?

Last question - is it worth waiting for the Z1000....?

Thanks for any thoughts and opinions...

Mut.

[Mutley]

Anybody? I know there are camera experts out there somewhere...