Le Chant

Sony, Panasonic et al do know a thing or two about decent lenses, as well as the electronics that wrap around them. Don't forget that Sony & Panasonic were the frontunners in small zoom lens manufacturing when they first brought out video cameras. If what you're after is a cheap-ish, but still decent camera, then there's no problem whatsoever in buying a Sony, Panasonic or whatever. They're well worth the dosh.

Firstly, set a budget. Then think about buying the camera that offers the largest number of megapixels. Don't consider anything under 4 megapixels if you want to print off decent quality enlargements. The higher the number of megapixels, the better quality image at a large size you'll be able to print. As for memory cards, buy the highest space memory you can afford. It's worth it. Otherwise you have the choice of forever downloading to your pc, or compromising on image quality to fit more onto the memory card. The Fujifilm Finepix S6500 is a fine camera with plenty to recommend it. It's like an SLR in looks & feel, although you're stuck with just the one lens. They go for reasonable prices these days. Optical zooms these days are quite good, and if you have a camera that offers something around 10x optical zoom, then it's worth having. Videos when taken on these digital cameras soak up the memory, so they're only any good when you don't have a dedicated video camera with you. Don't worry if the camera you buy doesn't have this facility, you possibly won't ever use it anyway. Hope that helps.

Just had ours, so expect they're on their way.....

We also suggest deposits are paid by sterling cheques. These are then deposited into our French bank account. The balance is then payable either upon arrival (for the campsite) or by further sterling cheque at the 8-week prior to arrival point. This costs us a small amount only, as we bank quite a few cheques at once. Many UK guests cannot understand, or do not want the hassle of obtaining Euro cheques to send to us, so rather than make life hard for them, we do it this way. It works just fine. The Aussie/NZ/Canadian guests we've had have rarely stayed beyond a week, as they love to see as much of the country as possible in the time they've allotted whilst in Europe. Don't worry about it.