Bridge camera for butterflies/other insects (1 Viewer)

I'd really appreciate any recommendations. I'm asking on behalf of a friend who's looking to treat her partner. It's been about six years since I used a bridge camera so I'm pretty clueless about current models. The budget is around £600. The recipient's main interest is butterflies - IMHO this would mean an effective (35mm equivalent) focal length of at least 200mm at the long end, but maybe we should consider longer? Video quality is not a priority.

We are going for a bridge rather than a DSLR because of weight considerations, and for versatility. My first suggestion (when I didn't know the budget!) was the Panasonic FZ150, but as friend is willing to spend more I've been looking at the Sony RX10 as the reviewers/mags seem to rate it very highly, but maybe the max focal length is too short?

If anyone wants to recommend their camera, sample shots of butterflies/other insects/flowers/other little things would be most welcome. Thank you!

Hi, I had the Fuji HS30 for a short time and found it to be very good for macro whereas my much loved canon SX50 is hopeless unless you stand back and zoom in and hope it can lock on!

Thank you for that - I don't know much about Fujis but the HS30 looks good so will pass that on. And you're the second person who's steered us away from the Canon SX50 so that's v helpful too

Take a look at the Panasonic fz200.This camera focuses on objects 1cm away from the lens and has a 2.8 aperture throughout it's zoom range which goes up to 600mm.There is also a teleconverter and a close up lens available increasing the versatility of the camera.Look on my gallery (Neil G.) for sample photos to give you an idea.

I would look at http://www.dpreview.com/products/panasonic/compacts/panasonic_dmcfz1000
also see this thread for birding related thoughts: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=285035

I do not use a superzoom anymore, but this one has a larger sensor like the sony you mentioned. Here is a quote from dpreview:

Image quality is also impressive, allowing the FZ1000 to perform as well (and sometimes better) than the Sony RX10. The FZ1000 excels not only in still image quality, but also video. While other cameras are working their way up to 1080/60p, the FZ1000 has made the jump to 4K, which has four times the resolution. Even when viewed on traditional displays, movies look fantastic.

Click to expand...

Don't discount the 4k options out of hand. As demonstrated in the birdforum thread, taking a still from a 4k movie is sometimes the best way of getting a photo at just the right time. For butterflies and other insects, I have in the past enjoyed the option of panasonic cameras of allowing macro focusing at maximum zoom, which allows a quite detailed photo taken at 1 meters distance -- much more likely that the insect is still there than if you need to go to wide angle and get really close to see some macro details (I hope this camera still bring that option along).

Niels