What would you reccommend...

[kaykay]

Hi, I have been looking around for a while now for a digital camera. I seem to find the perfect camera and then find another and another, and so I'm hopeing to get your opinion and reccommendations to narrow my search.
Unfortunately I don't really have any local camera shops to get in try out hands on. We do have a circuit city, I visited there a few days ago and found that the batteries were dead on most of the display cameras and got very little help from anyone. Heres what I'm looking for:

-Take photos of Family/Children/Vacation
-mostly print 4x6, some 5x7, very few 8x10
-Very important, Good clear sharp photos(as good as possible)
-Good color/true to life
-as little dely as possible between pressing the shutter button & the picture actually being taken
-as little as possible delay time between 1 shot to the next
-Good battery life, is it possible to have use rechargeable batteries/and also be able to take regular batteries?
-LCD monitor-good view of screen indoors and outside in sunlight
-red eye reduction and or/red eye removal
-I really like the automatic settings for now but would like the option to use mannual settings as I learn.
-like the scene modes- portrait/landscape
-really want to be able to flip the camera on and point and shoot with no waiting time.
-decent opticl zoom range.

I don't want to be unreasonable by any means, If any of these are. I have been looking at reviews and jotting down options I see and like. I know it may not be possible for 1 camera to have all of these.
I would really appreciate any help you can give for these requests. Also I might like to keep Olympus in mind if possible- my mil works for them setting up lab equipment and gets close to half off any Olympus product.
Thanks, Kay :)

[George Riehm]

Hi, I have been looking around for a while now for a digital camera. I seem to find the perfect camera and then find another and another, and so I'm hopeing to get your opinion and reccommendations to narrow my search.
Unfortunately I don't really have any local camera shops to get in try out hands on. We do have a circuit city, I visited there a few days ago and found that the batteries were dead on most of the display cameras and got very little help from anyone. Heres what I'm looking for:

-Take photos of Family/Children/Vacation
-mostly print 4x6, some 5x7, very few 8x10
-Very important, Good clear sharp photos(as good as possible)
-Good color/true to life
-as little dely as possible between pressing the shutter button & the picture actually being taken
-as little as possible delay time between 1 shot to the next
-Good battery life, is it possible to have use rechargeable batteries/and also be able to take regular batteries?
-LCD monitor-good view of screen indoors and outside in sunlight
-red eye reduction and or/red eye removal
-I really like the automatic settings for now but would like the option to use mannual settings as I learn.
-like the scene modes- portrait/landscape
-really want to be able to flip the camera on and point and shoot with no waiting time.
-decent opticl zoom range.

I don't want to be unreasonable by any means, If any of these are. I have been looking at reviews and jotting down options I see and like. I know it may not be possible for 1 camera to have all of these.
I would really appreciate any help you can give for these requests. Also I might like to keep Olympus in mind if possible- my mil works for them setting up lab equipment and gets close to half off any Olympus product.
Thanks, Kay :)

None of the all-in-ones have instant on and shoot capability. About 2.5 seconds is about as fast as I have seen, as there is a lot of boot time required for lens settings, etc.

If you can get half off, go for the 5060WZ. If you want good utility try the Canon A series (75 and 95). If you want super Zoom and Utility try the new Panasonic FZseries (FZ3, FZ15, FZ20) when they are avialable in September. The FZ1 and FZ10 are the current representatives of the line (but the new cameras add AF Illuminators for indoor shots).

All of these have very good outdoor capability and AF assist for good indoor shooting, adn are reasonably priced (if you use your half-off for the Oly).

Have fun.

[kaykay]

George, after reading your reply I spent most of the morning looking at Olympus.com. checking out their digi's. I have read every thing they have to say about the C-5060 Wide Zoom, and I really like it. I think this is the one I will be getting. Thanks for you help.

Can you explain the media cards, I'm not quite sure how many pictures each will hold. I seen they had cards that were 19mb with a very low price tag all the way up to 512mb with a price tag of around $200.00
Thanks again for your help. Kay