Well I am not a movie producer by a long shot, but the word on the street is that the Canon Powershot S3 IS has the best movie quality of all the P&S cameras out there.http://www.flickr.com/photos/freezingrain/..

If you mainly take still photos then get a still camera. Most P&S's have quite good movie modes. Note that some allow you alter zoom in during recording, some don't..

The "hybrid" cameras are really not useful for still photos. They are designed for movies first and stills are a secondary function..

StephenG.

Fuji S9600Fuji S5200Fuji F30Fuji E900Canon A710ISPCLinuxOS..

The thing is, do you want a pocket sized camera?.

If not, the Canon S3IS or new S5IS is the best for non-HD video in a stills camera as somebody else said. But it's quite a big camera..

It has a big zoom though like the Canon and Sanyo hybrids..

If you're definitely going for one of the hybrids, reading today's new review of the Sanyo onhttp://www.dcresource.com might help you decide (to buy the Canon)..

Another non-HD alternative would be the compact Panasonic TZ3. Unlike the others it doesn't let you zoom while making videos, but otherwise it's a great camera, and videos with it's 28-280 zoom lens and optical stabiliser will look pretty good. It's the only one with a wide angle lens..

Androohttp://Androo.smugmug.com..

Andrew Butterfield wrote:.

Another non-HD alternative would be the compact Panasonic TZ3. Unlikethe others it doesn't let you zoom while making videos, but otherwiseit's a great camera, and videos with it's 28-280 zoom lens and opticalstabiliser will look pretty good. It's the only one with a wide anglelens..

Androohttp://Androo.smugmug.com.

Yes the Canon S5IS is a bit larger than I'd like for a camera I'll be carrying around for thirty some days. After your recomendation on the Panasonic TZ3 and reading a couple reviews, I went out to Costco and purchased it. Haven't had a chance to use it yet, but the reviews seemed quite positive. The major disappointment is that there isn't any optical zooming while in movie mode..

The other camera I was considering was the Canon IS850, which I'm not sure how it might compare to the TZ3. (Costco, so no problem returning if it is superior, ignoring the obvious 4x vs 10x optical zoom).

So what is so special about the 28-280 lens on this camera, compared to something like the lens on the Casio EXZ7?.

Thanks again for your help and to everyone else for their help...

The SD850 appears to be a higher Mp version of their excellent SD700. If you have a wide format printer or plan on having large prints made for the wall the extra pixels could be significant. But for most users they wont see the difference with the extra pixels. I would want to see a review of the SD850 to see if they ended up with more noise squeezing two more Mp onto a 1/2.5 sensor. It is likely to be better than the TZ3 in any case for noise..

Read Simons review of the Casio V7. They have a lot of great features in a tiny camera but it doesnt take great pictures. You might not see a lot of difference if you only view the photos at screen size or make small prints. Casios are more configurable than most, but it doesnt seem like a great camera. It is pretty good for movies though and you can fit a lot on a memory card with their good new compression. It is evidently a little better than MPEG4.

The biggest disappointment is that the stabilization isnt effective..

I would personally consider the SD800 over the SD850. Wide angle is quite useful in a general purpose camera. Of course you lose out on the telephoto end and it is a little harder to make a wide angle zoom lens without distortions on a pocket camera..

Your TZ3 has an excellent lens. You will need a high capacity memory card if you want to take a lot of movies. Same for the Canons...