What is the going rate for a decent camera these days? roughly a $100?

I have a sony and will sell it cheep first quarter gets it. I should mention it is prone to freeze up and the screen well lets say if you live at the north pole your shots will look nice like the screen that is white. Sony only covers some white screen with extra warranty not all most don't die for a year or two.

I'm sold on the Panasonic Lumix with the big 28-200 lens. The only thing I don't like are the prices in Canada. $399 Canadian and only $239 in the US. Hello the money is at par. That is my mission for the week to find a US retailer who will ship me one of those in any color (blue, black or silver like who cares what color it is along as the screen is not white)

I am thinking of a new book "The rise and fall of Sony".

I have a Panasonic DMC-FZ20, which is more camera than I need for BPO work, but I love the zoom capabilities. I bought it (and the Olympus I had before that) from eBay as reconditioned from the manufacturer, at a considerable discount from paying full retail.

I would say closer to $225. Of course, what you determine as "good" and what I determine as "good" may be two different things.

lol

Gary has a point, GMAN...

Like you I have the mavica from way back as a long distance zoom backup to my aging cybershot. In looking for a new replacement camera I have not found many with a date/time stamp feature which works throughout the camera's range of picture pixel sizes. I would dislike resizing all the photos taken on a new camera just to have the date/time stamp working all the time.

I do miss the feel of my old AE 1 I used long ago when having to develop the film for the overnight delivery of the BPOs...but then I am dating myself.

Does this Panasonic have rapid fire shooting?

I can set to do a burst of 4 shots but I forget how quick they are...perhaps 1/2 sec between shots. I have never used the date stamp feature, and have never had a company refuse to accept my photos. If I ever had to prove when I took them, there is a thing called the EXIF file embedded in your original shot that can be retrieved so long as your camera has been programmed to know date and time. I absolutely hate seeing the date stamp on MLS listing photos.

canon s3is 12x optical zoom, discounting as s5 is coming out. movies, etc. it is a must see and check out dp reviews. Think rechargable batteries too, i keep a charger in the car pugged in and always have a fresh set ready to go when need them.

I've got a Fuji S5000 that i've had for a while- 10x optical zoom, 4x digital (all digital zoom is basically useless though). It's a good camera and have got lots of good shots with it but not the smallest camera on the block.
dpreview.com is a great site.