Golf Nut in search of camera

[SchragTime]

I'm an avid Golf junkie who is looking to buy a camera, whose primary purpose is to take shots of the golf courses I play. I plan to make a photo journal of my golfing endeavors, which means I will be making 8 1/2 X 11 prints for the most part and photo quality in a panoramic/landscape setting is the most important thing (don't much care about interior portrait shots, I'm rarely going to use the camera for that.) I'm looking for a small/medium sized camera, 5+ MP's, in the $350-400 range. What I don't know, is should I be looking at the compact wide angle cameras Like the Canon Powershot S70, or will the Kodak Easy Share 550/570 be sufficient for my needs, also how does optical zoom factor in for my needs is 4x optical okay or should I be looking for 7x. I like the compact size of both of these I just don't know if I'm giving up too much in the way of photo quality for size since I'm going to blow them up. I was also looking at the Fuji FinePix E900, I wouldn't want to go with a camera much bigger than that unless I couldn't reach my photo quality objectives with semi compact cameras. Also I saw in some of the reviews about photo stiching for panaramic type shots, I don't know if that would help with the smaller cameras or if it would be a useful/available tool for my needs.

Thanks in advance for the input

[coldrain]

I do not think you need much tele reach for golf courses.... Maybe the Canon A610/A620 is your best choice, since it has a very nice swivel screen, and a really good panorama help mode. It is about the size of that Fuji... and it is very good.