My feelings are a bit like James has said - the shutter lag on anything but an SLR makes shooting birds (or jumping dogs) fairly discouraging. We 'sent back' a lovely Konica Minolta because of this: (it was also a 12x super zoom) and took the Panasonic FZ30 12x zoom. Same problem though, cannot use it for birds or dog sports. It would be discouraging to lose shot after shot because of the shutter lag. The Lumix is fine if birds are quiet but not if they are edgey, so it is quite limiting. What about a lighter DSLR like the Pentax, it's not really a compromise, it can probably do all your Aunt would want beautifully with the one kit zoom lens.