Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4S

Pros: Long zoom, light, fast, easy menus

Cons: LCD could be bigger, not much else

Summary: I wanted to get a 10 or 12x zoom, fast shooting for sports shooting, good price, 4Mp or higher, and one that doesn't go thru batteries. Takes great pictures, burst mode is fast, AF is pretty quick, has HDTV 1080p still capture. This camera can be had for well under 300 bucks (sept '05) and yes, you could go to the FZ5 but I didn't find the extra 75 bills was worth it. The Canon S1/S2 were in the running but the FZ cams are smaller and easier to handle. The Sony H1 is too big. I like the menus better on the Panasonic, Canon menus are OK but not as intuitive. The FZ4 can zoom like crazy and the anti-shake works great. And there are enough manual controls to satisfy most users. I tested it in low light, not bad, my Oly 2040 was a bit better, but that had a f1.8 lens. No 300 dollar cam has such a fast lens anymore. For all you other cnet reviewers, a small memory card is NOT a "con". Get real! Anyway, the FZ4 won't disappoint. Oh and the proprietary battery is a LiIon which is better than NiMH. And for you engineering types out there, the camera generally pulls about 250mA - so the battery lasts a good long time. Overall this digicam is awesome.