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Can you guys recommend a good point and shoot type camera that will take good quality pictures as well as video and is also kind of compact, like to keep it under $350. Thanks.

call Doug.......

Was looking at a Canon couple days ago, point & shoot and in that price range with 20 megapixel images. Looked very handy.

The BEST way to go is the Sony DSC-HX80. It has a zeiss lens and a 30x zoom and can fit in a jacket pocket. It's under your budget, especially as a member of the forum. If you want Canon then the SX730 is a good choice as well. Slightly more and, IMO, not as good as the Sony
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Joel, Doug's brother (I run the camera side of the business)

18.2 megapixel, 30x, wifi, NFC, picture stabilization, has shutter and aperture mode.. in a wallet sized camera, pretty amazing.

Now I want one as a walk around camera.

Well I called Joel this afternoon and as always Cameraland delivered. Went with the Sony, he gave me a better price on it than I could find anywhere and because the purchase is time sensitive he also went above and beyond to make sure it shipped today with minutes til the USPS closed. Thanks a bunch Joel.

Good Deal ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Cameraland rocks......

A novice here. Are the cameras being discussed in this thread good for wildlife photography?

The Canon G series powershot cameras are pretty nice in class. Anything works for wildlife as well as any other thing. distance and function in less than optimal conditions is what you pay more for.

Cameraland steered me towards a model a little bit taller because I wanted a super zoom. Everything I want to shoot seems like it’s way out there.

I got the Sony DSC-HX400V, which has 50x optical zoom, rather than 30x. The price isn’t much different, but the camera isn’t nearly as easy to carry as the one being discussed I’ll guess. So far, I’m not sure if I made the best choice.

I did get some decent shots of the moon a few days ago that I’ve never been able to do before with a point and shoot. And it focuses much faster than the Nikon that never was fast enough to get any game shots worth sharing. I need to play with it more.

That’s exactly why I asked....

I suggested the G series because you have DSLR style control over the settings and a decent optical zoom and a large maximum aperture. I haven't shopped for such a thing for a while so I'm sure there are many offerings that have this feature. If one were intending to do anything other than snap shots this would be the way to go. You'll take the preponderance of your photos in aperture priority mode but, having full manual and shutter priority is part of the deal. If you want to get good, eschew all the automatic modes and stick to A, TV, and M it's the only way you'll develop an understanding of exposure and the relative effects of the settings. I'd try to find something with an actual viewfinder if possible too, personal preference but, I have a visceral hatred of video screens for viewfinders.
4/3 sized sensor cameras are popular now, they might be worth a look. As with many things though there's no replacement for displacement.
I'd buy used before I compromised.