3 comomon causes of blury photos:1. Misfocus2. Camera shake3. Motion blur.

IS can reduce camera shake, but not the other two. High sensitive sensors, like that of the Fuji F31 (and all DSLR) will reduce both camera shake and motion blur..

About misfocus problem, there are a few cures:1. Face detection: the camera will recognize the face and focuses on it2. Focus assist light: for better focus in darker environemnts.

3. Focus technique: this is the most important. The cameras usually have one or more focus points in the frame. Must place the focus point on the subject..

Everybody seems to recommend the Fuji F31 because it seems to address all of those problems. It has high sensitive sensor, face detection, and focus assist light..

Having own it personally, I have to say it's still no where near the capability of a DSLR...

I actually just got a Fuji F30 for myself, but I know Canon's are a little more mainstream. Like I said my friends are looking for simple point & shoots, nothing approaching DSLRs...

IS goes a long way to compensating for camera shake. AF is an issue, and motion blur is also an issue. Unfortunately for users who simply "point and shoot" there is no simple way to correct these - you have to know what you're doing when adjusting ISO or focus type..

For novice users who have no interest in getting into serious photography, IS is usually the best solution, since it works all the time and doesn't require any kind of user input. High ISO is certainly advantageous, but many users are more prone to leaving it at ISO100..

That said, with regards to IS systems, I think the ranking goes somewhat like this.

1. Panasonic Mega O.I.S.2. Canon IS3. Sony Super SteadyShot.

Then there are a few companies, but I don't believe they've been tested to be in the same range as this big 3. There are also sensor-shift stabilization methods, but they aren't as effective as these lens based systems either..

You probably haven't seen some of the newer firmware. It doesn't leave the ISO in the same place all the time anymore..

I was surprised to find out that the Fuji F30 changes the ISO quite radically on it's own. In bright sunlight, it uses ISO100. Indoors, it uses ISO800 or ISO1600. When flash is turn off, or when taken in dual shots mode, it even use ISO3200. All that without any user input. (This is very unlike my Rebel XT, which never uses more than ISO400 in green box mode.).

I also found that the Fuji uses higher shutter speed than what I normally use on my DSLR (way above the rule of thumb). This is probably to compensate for the incorrect way of holding camera that most people use...

What do they generally take pictures of? Is it indoor lower light? Is the blur coming from poor technique (stabbing at the shutter versus a smoother movement)?Are they printing large prints?.

Everyone is very quick to point you to the Fujis I have one and don't like the menus and general user interface..

If you use higher ISO's but are generally only printing smaller prints or looking at a picture on the screen, you don't have to get as hyper about having the best high ISO performance. I would trade that because having a wider 28mm lens and more zoom range is so much more useful to getting the shots, and if it is really dark out and I don't want to use flash well the picture will stay smaller..

For point and shoots I have a number of them some have more features but are not expensive....I also tell you which of my galleries has shots from it.....

TZ3 - fantastically versitile (panasonic) big zoom see twilight in NY, Central Park, London galleries.

A630....Canon no image stabilization. Packed with features but has come down in price. Twilight in NY galleryd-lux3....full manual control to advanced for your needs but a joy to use..

Terryhttp://tbanet.zenfolio.com/..