djredhat

It depends on what you are looking for. If you look for a "prosumer" class camera (SLR-like), I'd go for Panasonic FZ series with the powerful Leica lens. The most important part of the camera is the lens, and S2 IS is nowhere near FZs. IF you need good point-and-shoot, go for Fuji F10. Its low light performance nears SLR. Generally, all non-SLRs introduce a lot of noise with ISO 200 and above. The unique exception is F10. However, if you go for FZ20, it has a hot shoe that will allow to use external flash (a decent one sells around 70$ on Ebay), so you don't have to worry about low-light conditions. bottom line: Pana FZs or Fuji F10 Hope it helps.

Well, I would not say that the Panasonic FZ series (FZ5,FZ15,FZ20, amd FZ30) are bulky. Actually, they are rated as the best in the prosumer class with powerful 12x stabilized zoom and 2.8 aperture throughout the entire zoom range. Much better than Canon, Kodak, and all the others in this class. Also, combined with the Olympus TCON 14B telelens, I have 18x optical zoom :gd_pineap If you find a good deal on these - jump on it (anything around 300$).