Oh crap!!! I just went thru the Panasonic and Kodak cameras and came up with two more contestants. We now have the
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20S and the
Kodak EasyShare DX7590.
Now I LOVE them both.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20S - I didn't decide to go with the F15 cause an extra ~$100 is worth the hotshoe for external flash and the extra 1MP. Also the F20 can record audio. I also prefer silver to black. Silver looks cool and doesn't get as hot cause silver reflects the sun and black absorbs it. Maybe that;ll keep the camera a bit cooler, I dunno. From the looks of things, this beats the Olympus. it has 2x more optical zoom and 1MP higher. It's got an image stabilizer and an AF assist lamp. Very good features. The only drawback is the size. It's the biggest of the three and I will need a small camera bag for it.
Kodak EasyShare DX7590 - Love it. It's got 10x optical zoom and 5MP. I love the LCD and viewfinder. They are the biggest of the three. It can record 640x480 video while the Panasonic one does half that I believe. The Olympus can do 640x480 too tho. You can get that cool-ass printer dock thing so you just plop the camera on the dock and press Print and out comes your picture. That's totally awesome. But there are more drawbacks with this camera compared to the other two. It has no AF assist lamp and no hotshoe (but it says it has an external PC flash sync but I have no idea what that is...anyone want to elaborate this).
I can't decide!!!! They are all cool cameras. Right now I think the Olympus and the Panasonic are VERY close to the #1 spot with Kodak real close but behind. There anymore cameras that I can add to the list of potential buys?