Help me buy a good non-SLR digital camera

[nadroj]

Thanks for that guys. All useful replies. Yes, the other thing that is important and I'd forgotten about was capturing the photo when you push the button ... not 2 seconds later. My wee Kodak is pretty good but there is a slight lag. Also flash quality ... my first digital (a Mustek) ... I would have got more light on a subject by lighting a fart. Timing the fart to the moment I wanted to take the photo was the problem though.

I can live with parallax given that you can sort of adjust for the effect when you are familiar with the camera and cropping the final product helps.

Any more advice or model suggestions gratefully accepted.

The main reason I went DSLR was to get action shots without having to anticipate with 'shutter delay' and a blank display on my Sony F828.

[Oakie]

My extensive research has led me to the conclusion that the Canon Powershot SX20 IS is the bee's knees for what I want. http://www.steves-digicams.com/camer...is-review.html The standard mall retailers do it for $899 but PriceSpy http://pricespy.co.nz/ has led me to a local shop that will do it at $698. Could do it $30 cheaper ordering on-line from Auckland but like the idea of being able tio eyeball the vendor and having somewhere to go back to if need be.

Oh. A big wahoo for the re-modelled PriceSpy site. So much functionality in there now and the filters made it possible to reduce 419 possible models to 15 which I then just read the linked expert reviews to to make my choice.

[Beemer]

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is probably the best non-SLR camera available at the moment (that is in your price range).

However it has no built-in viewfinder, only an LCD.

I've got a pro-digital camera as well as a Panasonic Lumix. The new one is (I think) 12 megapixels and about $800. Very good cameras, very easy to use and they get great reviews. Shop around for a good price.