wrote:
Thanks for all your ideas - there were quite a few on the list that I
hadn't considered.

One last question - most of the reviews of the Dimage Z5 seem to say
that the picture quality is "OK" - does anyone have any thoughts on
this?

On the one comparison I've seen between the image quality of the Minolta
Z5 and the Panasonic FZ5, the Panasonic was significantly ahead. I think
that was dcreview.

A lot of these reviews don't have a scale from bad to OK to good - that
would upset the manufacturers or importers - they have a scale of OK,
good, brilliant! See where "OK" rates on the reports given to similar
cameras.

Cheers,
David