Hey JM. I know exactly where you were when you took that pic. My Sister-In-Law is on her way to Quebec City tomorrow for a weeks vacation.

I went to the camera store to look around and decided that the S3 IS was way to big for what I wanted. It didn't look that large in the pictures, but it's actually size of a small SLR.

After discussing my needs and wants with a very knowledgable sales guy we narrowed it down to two cameras. The Canon A700 or the Panasonic TZ1. Although I have a huge affinity for Canons, I decided that the 10x optical zoom and the image stabilization warranted trying out the Panasonic. The downsides of the Panasonic (IMO) are a lithium rechargable battery (vs. AAs on the Canon) and no view finder. However, it does have a metal casing (plastic on the Canon) and even though the zoom is stronger, the lens only pops out a 1/3 of the way over the Canon.

I can play with the Panasonic and if I don't like it, I have 14 days to return it or 21 days to exchange it for something else. I'm still interested in feedback if anyone has anything to add.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/comp...mctz1&show=all