[eeyore]

the panasonic MZ7 is a good bit of kit - it goes for arround 180 notes.

you can get digital camera much cheaper but they may be a false economy as they will not last as well or do everything you want to do and if you spend say 70 notes on one one year then the same again next year , then the same again ..... then in a couple of years you could have had a decent camera for the same price.

two avenues that may be worth exploring however are

a) digital depot often have good deals on factory reconditioned kit which is often considerably cheaper than new

and

b) it is possible to get good deals on second hand stuff either from dealers or from ebay - for instance I recently paid £80 for a canon G4 - this is a very well specified bridge camera which was state of the art about 3 years ago - it only has four megapixels but this is perfectly adequate for most applications and is a better deal than a cheap but new make.

In terms of dealers it is worth checking out mifsuds, SRS, T4 camera, Camtech etc get a copy of amateur photographer , a weekly magazine which has oodles of adverts in the back

second hand compacts have minimal value so you might be able to get a good deal - and if you want someone to give you a second opinion on the worth of a specific one , or even to come along to the buy feel free to give me a shout.