I was looking at getting a new camera, I don't think I'm ready to jump into the dslr world yet. Would this be a good camera for an amateur who wants to get good quality images but can pack on hunts as his main camera? I would mainly be taking wildlife shots (I like the big zoom the sx40 has) and of course landscapes and trophy photos.

Anyone have any first hand experiences with it? Thanks

I did play around with it in the shop, but ended buying the Panasonic FZ150.

Which I can highly recommend.

Thanks Saeed,

What is your opinion on the video capabilities of the panasonic fz150? Does it stay 1080 while zoomed in? Sorry I am obviously green when it comes to knowing this stuff.

Thanks

The video is very good in good light conditions.
But, it is not upto a good video camera standard.

This, by the way, goes to all cameras with video capability.

Even very good video cameras tend to suffer in relatively poor let areas.

Last week I videod a school performance at my daughter's school, using our XF305 semi-pro video camera - it costs about $10K.

The video was great, but, the parts where I had to zoom in showed some pixelations.

If you show your pixelation in Alabama you can be arrested for indecency.

I have the earlier Canon SX30IS with the 35x zoom and it does give you great telephoto capabilites for the long shots. I find it a bit bulky for use while hunting and, more and more, I find myself going to the Sony XMor R with 16.2 megapixels/16x optical zoom/1080 full HD movie/small and compact. I keep it in my shirt pocket and it's much handier than the SLR-like camera that I have in a camera bag in the truck.