Help choosing camera

[sink21]

After a year of trying to make my Sony W1 work out like I need it too, I'm throwing in the towel and looking for a replacement.

Now, before you say that the W1 is a great camera and I should just keep it, let me (mostly) agree. The one big fault is that it's nearly impossible to take a decent, non-blurry photo in even remotely low-light conditions. Sure I could use a tripod, but come on... I bought a pocket sized camera so that I can whip it out, snap a picture, and move on. Carrying a tripod sorta ruins the "pocket sized" concept.

So here's my list of desires:

• 5MP, high quality pictures[/*]
• Image stabilization and/or ability to take pics without 90% of them coming out blurry[/*]
• AA batteries rather than proprietary batteries[/*]
• Pocket sized
  [/*]
• Standard (and thus hopefully cheap) memory type[/*]
• Quick startup/shutdown[/*]
• FAST shutter speed and image capture speed[/*]
• $350 - $400 USD
  [/*]

Movies, manual settings, etc. are great features, but the biggest desire is to make sure that the camera fires up fast, snaps a great pic without a tripod. I travel alot and take pics indoors at events for work. Pics are taken in quantity, with a fast snapshot mindset and need to be able to swap out batteries for a long period.

I've been looking at:

• Canon SD500[/*]
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX8 or FX9[/*]

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!
Jake

[airshowfan]

Where did the list of desires go?

In any case, the Canon A520/A610/A610 seems to be the best substitute for the W1. Manual controls, 4x zoom, similar size and features. Sony has the S90 and S60, which are very similar but just a tad more expensive. If you already have Sony memory sticks, though, you might consider the Sonys so your memory cards don't go to waste.

And if you want to get a camera with exceptional low-light performance, Fuji has put some new technology into their new sensors that make them take good pictures at high ISOs. These are the tiny Z1, the big-zoom S5200/S5600, and the small-ish-medium-sized F10. Only the 5200/5600 has manual controls, but I hear the successor to the F10 (the F11) will as well, if that's important to you. (It certainly is to me, but I recognize most people want to whip the camera out of their pocket and just press a button).

More comparisons and info at

http://www.airshowfan.com/guide-to-d...-cameras-2.htm

[sink21]

Thanks for the info.

Did you not see my list of desires in my post? Maybe the bullets caused formatting problems in your browser or something.

Anyway, here they are again:

# 5MP, high quality pictures
# Image stabilization and/or ability to take pics without 90% of them coming out blurry
# AA batteries rather than proprietary batteries
# Pocket sized
# Standard (and thus hopefully cheap) memory type
# Quick startup/shutdown
# FAST shutter speed and image capture speed
# $350 - $400 USD