I have researched near continuously for a couple of years now, limited to P&S, and after incredible research, finally bought a Panasonic Lumix FZ 35 cause it kept coming up as "the" P&S. Haven't been happy with it since day one.
Decided to stick with Olympus, and have been waiting for months for their new models, which look good, but having now seen limited pictures from them, not so impressed.
Sick of it all... decided that none of them are that much better than my old beloved Oly C-740, I decided to see what was the most advanced model of that before they 'went bad', ie somehow changed things so the pictures aren't as good (to my eye) and eliminated the view finder, and went to proprietary batteries.
[My C-740 has developed a couple of minor, though important flaws that I thought of getting refurbished, but realized that would cost as much as a replacement with an older model. For instance, long ago lost the operation of the 'forced flash' mode. This is not a flaw of the camera, but rather a result of my heavy and not so gentle usage of it on over 300 days at WDW and well over 30,000 pictures! And some rainy days I suppose...]
It all gets so confusing. Had just about given up, when having found what sounded like the answer was just too much, and at the last minute decided to check eBay...
I just did a 'buy it now" on Ebay for 165 w shipping; New Olympus SP 550 UZ.
Does time lapse! And has viewfinder, 22 optical zoom, and VGA movie and uses AA's... pictures of the quality of my beloved C-740, only better, as opposed to anything else I could find and sick of trying! This is the biggest advance over the C740 before they went to no viewfinder and proprietary batteries.
))
Jud
