point & shoot opinions...

[= Buckeye Jess =]

So my Fuji point and shoot seems to have sprouted legs and run away.... *ahem*
Now I'm left needing another one. I just don't want to take my digiSLR on a lot of my bike trips.
Considering all of the money I've dumped on toys lately, I'm crunched and really prefer to just get the biggest bang for the buck on a new camera. What are everybody's picks for the latest/greatest?
I want:
minimum of 8mp - higher would be great
image stabilization (preferably optical, but might settle for digital)
the most optical zoom I can get
storage on SD/SDHC cards
prefer rechargeable batteries
I'd like to be able to take some burst photos, but it is not a must
the manual controls don't have to be real robust, I have my slr for that...
Basically, I want a heck of a clean/sharp photo! lol

The Canon powershots are looking nice to me, but I don't want to exclude anything right outta the shoots...

[rforsythe]

I recently got Donna a Nikon S620. I did a ton of research and bang for the buck, this just seemed like the best one; so far we have not been disappointed with it. We've had a couple Canon's and weren't totally satisfied. This S620 is 12.2MP, 4x 28-112mm optical zoom, and has the vibration reduction technology. It has a 2.7" LCD and is physically small so it doesn't get in the way. For a point and shoot it's also one of the fastest ones available. It's not quite as speedy as my D200 SLR, but is completely capable of taking action shots unlike some other P&S's that have to think about the picture for a second before it can be taken. Also the price isn't bad (I can't remember what I paid, but it wasn't unreasonable).

[rybo]

Jess,

I've owned 2 or 3 powershots over the years and have been totally pleased with them. My current one is 10MP and has image stabilization. I've given up shooting with my older DSLR because the point and shoot does better.

If I was buying today I'd do the same thing again, and Canon is my first look for a point and shoot camera.

Scott

[= Buckeye Jess =]

Ralph - I'll def. add that one to my list to look at!
Scott - that's what I'm hearing from a whole lot of people, thanks!!