Further to yesterday's post about the digital camera conundrum, and I thank you all for your input which helped very much, i have decided on the Panasonic TZ1 with the 10x zoom. The main issue i had with it was the battery pack but have been convinced that it probably won't be a problem and i will eventually get a spare anyway. I can live with no optical viewer and i've decided to get it from Wacky Wheatly's, which is a store i trust, not a large chain store like Future Shop or one where the parent company is already closing some of their stores in Canada which doesn't really inspire confidence. I was speaking to someone at WW's just now and mentioned the price that i could get it for at both of the other two places. WW doesn't have it that low but i was told that they could probably meet it since it was an older model but he would need manager approval and said manager was not going to be in until Monday. If they will meet the price ($299), even the price that Future Shop is selling it for ($329), i'll get it there. They don't have 2 gig SD memory cards in but have a good deal on 1 gig cards, 28$, so i will get a couple of them. I'll source out a spare battery later on. Wacky's is a good company to deal with and they're Canadian owned.