This would certainly be an upgrade for me.

xD/MicroSD=FAIL

Olympus has to wake up and smell the industry standards. SDHC is the way to go. At this price I would take a hard look at the equivalent Panny or Canon models. If you shoot video a lot then Canon is the way to go. They let you zoom while shooting and also have an alternative firmware for extended capabilities.

I had an 18x super zoom about a year ago. It was great for quick hand held long zoom photos made possible by dual stabilazation and the relatively compact size. I found that the longest zoom wasn't quite enough though. This one at 26x might fill the bill. BTW these superzoom point & shoot cameras will not match a good DSLR in ultimate picture quality but they do offer picture taking opportunities that the DSLR will often miss.