Looking for recommendations for a quality compact budget up to £250

Steve

I've had a Nikon which I wasn't impressed with and 2 Canons which have been superb, I have a 40D DSLR but still have my old SX100is compact

You can get an SX240 HS for that sort of money but you might want to consider a bridge and you pick up a nice Lumix for that money.

I always say to anyone not to dismiss the used market, you can get a lot for your buck and I've had good dealings with http://www.mpbphotographic.co.uk/

Thanks for that was leaning towards the Lumix TZ range but there is so many of them, 7/8/10/20/30 all look good with favourable reviews, Which is the best bang for your buck as the saying goes

Steve

I have had a couple of the Panasonic TZ range -starting with a TZ-3 a few years back, and now TZ-20. They are pretty good for something that you can shove in your bag or large pocket and have with you at all times -they do pretty well on full auto as point and shoot. But do have some manual control as well if you are prepared to read the manual.

Generally, with the TZ's, the higher the model number the more recent and therefore higher the spec. Bridge cameras with bigger optics do take better pictures for less money but are a lot more bulky and heavy. I used to have a large bridge camera (Fuji s9500) -great in it's day but just too much hassle to carry around