Marc,

I'm not familiar with the two cameras you saw at Best Buy so I'll leave comments about them to others. I do know that they are larger and heavier than I prefer.

Last month I purchased a new camera for Africa. It was a Panasonic Lumix ZS50. It has a 30x optical zoom (24-720mm), six shot bursts at 10fps, and does well in low light. It goes from full auto to full manual. It is smaller, weighs less and costs less than the other two cameras you saw. I'm very happy with the camera and think it will be perfect for ZEBRA 3. Here's a review I found that will give you more details about the camera: ZS50 review