We’ve had a Sony DSC-R1 for a few years now, and while it’s fine for my purposes, it’s much too large and complex to act as a convenient point-and-shoot for my wife. It’s also not a DSLR, so we’re stuck with the built-in lens. There are after-market options, but adding a special & expensive lens to a non-SLR just doesn’t make sense to me – and, plus, I’ve pretty much sworn off Sony for my consumer electronics. So, I’ve been in the market for two cameras for awhile: a DSLR for me, and a nice, accessible, point and shoot Digital Camera for Mary Lou. My primary reason for wanting a DSLR is to add a telephoto lens.

Several times in the past couple of years, I’ve come close to buying one or the other, but not both. I’ve toyed with the idea of buying a Canon, a Nikon, or maybe even an Olympus, but price (especially if you mix a zoom lens in), complexity, and the fact that nothing really has everything I’m looking for has stopped me from pulling the trigger. Features I’m looking for in particular include:

• Very good zoom capability – I want to be able to shoot wild-life that we occasionally run across, such as deer, birds, foxes, etc.
• Rotatable Live View – shooting kids through a viewfinder just stinks, and catching an “over the head” or “around the corner” shot is difficult without Live View.
• Image Stabilization – I’ll never buy another camera without this. Too many shots have been ruined by my inability to be incredibly still.
• Good sensor size – I know that you don’t need a huge number of megapixels to shoot a good picture, but having the ability to crop in Photoshop later on without losing any usable (printable) pixels is a big plus. I’m not a pro photographer, so being able to snag a couple of faces in a group shot and make them look like hi-res portraits in their own right is nice.
• RAW format – again, being a non-pro, I’ve messed up quite a few shots that were over- or under-exposed, and without RAW format to fall back on, I don’t think I’d have been able to salvage anything.

In any case, I think I’ve made up my mind to buy an upcoming Canon that has a decent set of features, and that may suffice for both of us: the Canon SX1IS. I’m intrigued by this model’s high-quality CMOS sensor, its inclusion of pretty much all the features I’m looking for, and some bonus features tossed in (30fps 1080p video, face detection, wireless remote control, auto Red Eye removal, i-Contrast, etc.). It looks like it’s still going to be pretty bulky ( close to 2 pounds with batteries) compared to some pocket cameras, but I suspect that that won’t be a problem due to our shooting habits. I’m not sure whether I’ll start off with ‘normal’ AA batteries, or pick up the NIMH + charger. I’ll also be going with a ‘normal’ Class 6 16GB SDHC Memory Card (hrm – maybe 2×8GB would be better for backup).

As far as I can tell, the only thing this set up doesn’t have is the ability to add lenses (but with 20x zoom, I might not need it), and Bluetooth connectivity.