Hi everyone!
Image stabilization sounds important. Is it???

Image stabilization is only important if you have a super telephoto lense. This is because a big zoom lense will inadvertantly "magnify" any and all shakiness as well as the subject. A stabilized lense works to correct this problem making it easier for you to get the shot you want without a tripod. It is, of course, not necessary. I have gotten beautiful shots at full telephoto (about 8x zoom on that particular lense) with no tripod while using my totally manual (as in no autofocus) slr. All it takes is a little patience.

Here's how IS works on the Canon and Olympus cameras (that have IS):
http://www.canon.com/technology/deta...ift/index.html

Ardvark50 is partially right... lens stabilization isn't absolutely essential when zoomed in tight and you CAN get good pictures without it, but once you get out beyond 200mm it does help a lot to minimize camera shake. On my Canon Powershot Pro90 (37-370mm equivalent) it's worth a couple of f-stops when shooting hand held. I use a TCON-17 teleconverter on top of my standard zoom and it's really hard ( impossible?) to shoot hand held because of the weight of the lens and the 600+ mm reach without stabilization engaged.

I just wanted to thank all of you for your good advice and help. I have been too confused to buy a digicam for years now, but with all the info I received here, I was able to make an educated decision and actually purchased a Canon A60 last night. I am no big time photographer - just wanted it for fun and I can say this this is a great camera. I am having a blast with it and it takes great pics!
Again, thanks everyone for your help!

Image stabilzation also works well even when the camera is on a tripod to stabilize ground movement (not earthquake sized though) and wind movement.

Is there any disadvantage to leaving stabilization on all the time on a digital camera?

Actually, most people find that it causes camera shake when on a tripod so they turn IS off!

I guess the biggest disadvantage to leaving IS on all the time is shorter battery life since we are talking about a feature that is powered by an electric motor.

From an experience I had on my last trip with a Canon EF 28-135 IS USM on a speedboat: The IS is totally useless! The five AF points on the EOS-10D just danced around unable to achieve any focus... Turning the IS off get a lock on everytime.

BTW on some long lenses their manual say to turn IS off when mounted on a tripod!

I use an old Sony MVC-FD95 with the SteadyShot. Does the image stabilization work the same in the Sony as the Canon stabilization does?

I remember years ago, in camcorders, that Canon had a mechanical system of gyroscopes and Sony had an electronic, no moving parts, system. I was wondering if there were still differences between the two stabilization systems?

The Canon is electro-mechanical with a moving optic. Sony did use both at least my early Sony TR series camcorder was optical, but now they seem to switch to electronic only with no moving part since it's less costly to manufacture...