A compact camera suits your style well, Todd. Of course, I'm thinking back to the days of the hike down the semi-frozen river for images of the Saginaw Range. Wouldn't want to be lugging around a big camera on that outing.......

My original decent digital camera was the Olympus C700UZ. Unfortunately, it died at 13 months, just after warranty and it was going to be 75% of the cost of a new camera to possibly fix the old. The new 740 and 750 were announced but not yet in the stores, and I was headed out on a lighthousing adventure so I ended up with my Panasonic, which has worked out to be a great camera.

I think the 18x zoom and the slightly wider close up end of the camera will be great additions. I have come to love the image stabilization, and the new Olympus has 2 varieties built in. I think it will be a great multi-purpose camera at a pretty decent price.