Canon PowerShot SX10 IS Digital Camera Review

I owned to Olympus Stylus cameras and I was always frustrated with the lag time between pressing the button and shutter click (you photo folks out there will know what the technical term is). But for me, all it meant was I was missing those shots of my kids that fall in between that blank stare and all-out crying (or running towards me). You know, those "money shots".

So...I was ready to upgrade, but I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to be stuck with the same lag. So I researched and researched. I talked to my professional photographer friends, but they all said "go dSLR" - but I wasn't ready for that sort of commitment and complication in my photography life. I just wanted something "fast" that would catch my kids in action. Frankly, maybe it's my "old eyes", but I really don't see the big difference in the pixel quality - especially when most of my prints are 4x6 and if I'm looking at it digitally, it's only as good as my monitor.

So I went with the Canon Powershot SX10 IS. I was actually in Best Buy looking to buy the Sony Cyber shot, but the Canon looks heftier and "cooler" and since I kept losing my pocket cameras, a larger size was on my list of desired features.

I brought it home on Friday and started snapping away.

What impressed me:

- Zoom - sure, some folks complain that 20x zoom is too much, but I live in Colorado - so there are lots of beautiful things to zoom to - wildlife, nature, etc. Maybe the folks that say 20x is too much are grumpy city folk :)

- Ease of use - I took this out of the box, inserted the memory card and batteries and just started shooting. Sure, I can see where I need to read the manual to adjust some lighting settings, but I was able to take some great shots even in the dim lights of the Aquarium.- Flip out LCD - when sticky little fingers come near, I can just snap it closed- Nice and easy-to-use Macro feature. - Not as much delay when I pressed the button and the shutter clicked. I got a bunch of cute shots of the kids. HOORAY! Not as fast as the SLRs that I tried in the store, but I wasn't going to spend twice as much - not at this point.What I didn't like:- It strikes me that the lense cap is going to be easily lost- Looking through the viewfinder versus the LCD screen gave me a headache (although my eyes aren't the greatest, even at 41But overall I thought this camera was a great buy for the money and I can't wait to use it more often!PS - I don't know why, but the italics wouldn't shut off when I was writing this review. Hopefully it's not as annoying to everyone else as it is to me.