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Although this isn't supposedly as amazing as the Panasonic competitor (the TZ7 or ZS3), I bought one of these for my mom, and then promptly borrowed it for a two week trip.

Personally, I like the camera a lot. I don't mind some of the negatives that people have mentioned about it (how far the lens zooms out and the flash always being up while the camera is on.) I do wish the wide angle lens went a bit wider like the Panny, and I do wish it could zoom while shooting video. However, the single biggest reason I could never own this camera is because it has no viewfinder (neither does the ZS3 FWIW).

It takes pretty good photos though.

12x optical zoom? seems pretty good. does anyone know if this would be a good upgrade to my G3?

Good review #1, a rarity on this site. I'm still surprised they can't put a USM in the lens of these and let me zoom while shooting video. I have an elph and a FS1 and am hoping to combine the two (good 480p video and perfect stills in a small package).

#1, #3: Well, you can unlock features like that on almost all of the Canon PowerShot camera's using CHDK.

Unfortunately, they haven't finished porting CHDK to this model yet. I'd guess that it'll be ready in a few months, but it's hard to tell.

CHDK adds a lot of features to your camera. You can use optical zoom while taking a movie. It also lets you use RAW picture storage(rather than just JPEG), change the video compression rate, get a live histogram as you're setting up your picture, use faster shutter times, take time-lapse movies, have an on-camera calender, and play games. You can also write your own scripts for it in a BASIC type language, to do things like take a picture when the camera sees movement, or automatically capture pictures of lightning.

here's a page that describes CHDK: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_in_Brief

you can even create wide-angle shots using the CHDK firmware, and with HDR, no less, by stitching a bunch of shots together. see an example 35megapixel image here: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Samples:_HDR_Mosaic

Good info #4. I often forget about that when looking at Canon specs. Canon's are generally decent and offer waterproof cases which is important to me.

Yes, I agree with #4. I need the camera to be waterproof to take pics of Nemo.

#6: really? You found him?