Thanks for the suggestion! I'm still researching reviews on dpreview and Steve's digicam. I'm so torn. I really was hoping for something smaller and cheaper unless it will truly replace both my camera and video camera. I found a new Kodak that looked promising, but it has no view finder. Now I've read that IS increases shutter lag??...shutter lag terrifies me. lol. So now I'm wondering if I should give up the high optical zoom...my zoomed photos always end up dark anyway. Ugh.
I think the last thing I would ever give up on is the high optical zoom. Nothing better for trips to the zoo, or kids on the playground.
All P&S are going to have a fair amount of shutter lag, some better than others, but I've never heard IS blamed for that though? IS has to do with the lens itself and not the processor. One thing to help decrease your lag by a small amount is to turn off your review shot option. Really though it's going to depend on the processor in the end. If you were to go ahead with the S5 or S3 even, you would be able to have alot of available shooting modes, TV, AV and M. Most times you can fine tune these settings to help you get better shots that what you will be getting in "green box" mose. That would help with your dark long distance shots.