Digital Camera Question

[Travis]

I'm looking at picking up a new camera to replace my Kodak EasyShare DX6490. I just wanted to throw this out there to see if anybody has some suggestions that I may have overlooked.

I'm really leaning towards the Canon PowerShot S3 IS at this point as it seems to fulfill my want list and seems to have some very favorable reviews. Just to establish now, I'm staying away from dSLR's. I'd like to keep the cost to around $500, and the pictures are mostly for personal use, though the option to potentially print bigger prints is nice.

My main uses for it will be on trips and for sports (usually attending hockey/baseball/football games or for our own games, slow pitch, flag football, ball hockey). Rarely will I be using a tripod, so the stabilization feature is quite handy and necessary.

I found the 10x optical zoom on the Kodak to be great, I think the lowest I'd be willing to go is 8x. Based on the quality I was getting at 4 megapixels with the Kodak, I'm assuming anything over 5 will suit my needs, and while the Canon has 6, it seems it's main competitors have 7+.

A good or better quality movie mode is a must as I'd like to use that at practices to help show some of our players their techniques and what we're talking about when trying to help them at practices.

This model seems to be at or near the top in all of the categories I'm placing the most emphasis on, but this will be just my second digital camera, so I'm more than likely missing a few options/ideas.

[stevew]

That canon's a pretty nice camera. I would just stock up on rechargeable Batteries, since it uses AA's. You should be able to get it for around 330ish, maybe a touch more. Check for pricematches before you go, and you'll get the best deal.

I'd probably also look into either the DSC-H2 Cyber-shot Digital Camera or DSC-H5 Black Cybershot Digital Camera by sony as well(279/359 at dell). The H5 is 7 megapixels. Granted you're looking at spending a bit more on the sony memory cards though.

[fjvieane]

My wife and I (noticed I listed her first ) just bought a Canon Rebel XTI and she loves it.

We got a decent package (2 lenses, 3 1gb memory cards, bag, tripod, hmm something else too)

Was worth it to me, plus it had everything the wife wanted. hehe

[NoMyths]

I've had great success with Canon PowerShots.

[evil homer]

the wife and i picked up the canon S3 for x-mas and have been very happy so far. excellent quality on the pictures and the 10x optical zoom is great.