New Cameras

I seem to be buying at least one new camera every year. The technology seems to be improving at a great rate, but some of the gains are illusory.
Last year's hot technology was backlit CMOS sensors. CMOS sensors have been used in expensive cameras for years, but recently manufacturers have been putting them into slightly cheaper cameras. Canon, Panasonic and Sony have several models to name some of the manufacturers. In the last 18 months I've bought one from each of these.
CMOS is the technology used in computer processors, so putting it into a camera allows all sorts of wizardry, that the older CCD chips weren;t capable of. CMOS also seems to be able to capture images at lower light levels without introducing too much noise.
The Canon SX40-HS and Sony HX5v both use multiple exposures to boost low light performance, which is useless for my needs. The boat and swimmer both move in the time it takes to capture multiple images, giving me perfectly exposed very blurred images. They also struggle to focus in very low light, so even flash images are unsatisfactory. My latest Panasonic is the DMC-FZ200 and it's very similar to its predecessors as it's able to focus in almost zero light, with the focus assist light.
The Canon SX40-HS has an incredible 35x zoom, but it really needs to be mounted on a tripod for best results. I strongly believe that 20x is about the maximum useful zoom, though it depends where it starts. Marketing people emphasise the zoom range of cameras, but 20x zoom means different things depending upon the widest angle in the range. A 20x zoom that starts at the 35mm equivalent of 24mm will have a very wide angle of view at the wide end and a medium range (480mm) at the telephoto end. One that starts at 28mm will not be as wide, but the 560mm telephoto is useful for bringing distant subjects closer.
When comparing zooms you should always find out the 35mm equivalent values. The Panasonic DMC-FZ200 lens shows a range from 4.5 to 108, which means nothing to me, but I do understand what 25-600mm means. Human eyes have a focal length of roughly 50mm, so a 25mm will enable the camera to capture an image about 1.75 as wide as you can see, the 600mm end of the zoom will magnify the image about 16 times (600/50), not the 24x shown in the adverts.