Camera Dilemma...

As I may have mentioned in a few of my recent blogs,  my trusted Casio EX-Z500,  which I've had for almost two years is starting to crap out on me.  It seems like I just bought it,  but that was actually August 05:

(when it was new, way back in the day)

It was fine at last week's fashion show, but the next day at the boat trip it started acting up.  I think the light sensor or something has failed because at zero zoom all the shots are washed out (just a big white blank picture in some cases),  i was lucky to figure out that the video recording still works ok and if you zoom in far enough, it still comes out ok (but that makes taking indoor portraits a bit awkward!).  I tried replacing the firmware in case it was a software bug (since it still /can/ take good pictures,  it just doesn't seem to want to),  but the problem persists.

so I need(want) to buy a new camera.  Those of you who know me, know I'm partial to Casio's cameras,  as I've had two since 2003 and both have worked pretty well (my 2003 EX-Z3 is still working!),  and at least sometimes they can take some great shots (night time shots, sunset shots, etc).

But I also have felt like I'd like to try something with a better zoom than my previous cameras had.  I don't care too much about megapixels (is there any point in having a 10 megapixel pocket size camera?)  -- portability and battery life are more important.

Given all that,  I was very tempted by this new Casio, the EX-V7:

Which has a 7x zoom and is pretty small. BUT the reviews I read mentioned that the image stabilization really blows.  Doh.  Since a lot of the pictures I take are candids in places like restaurants, concerts, bars, from moving vehicles, etc (just look at this blog for an idea of what i take 90% of my pictures of),  the image stabilization is important!  one of the things I liked a lot about my current camera was its ability to take pretty good shots indoors w/o a flash.

I'm also tempted by strange things like this Canon TX1, which has a 10x zoom and lots of high end video capabilities:

But its apparently pretty pricey, has a small screen and bad UI according to reviews.... 

Both reviews mentioned an alternative is the Panasonic TZ3,  TZ = Travel Zoom...  since I like to travel and i like to zoom,  it appeals to me already!

A 10x zoom! can't do much better than that in such a small size.  This is significantly larger than the Casio,  but i think its still small enough to fit in a pocket,  has a big 3" LCD screen and it takes pretty good pictures for what I want ( review here - japanese CM here)

Having been spoiled on the good, consistant UI on casios for the last 4 years,  its hard to switch over to another brand...   which is why I want to make sure I give the Casio EX-Z1050 a fair chance before I rule it out:

Even if it only has a 3x zoom, has more mega pixels than I'll ever need,  it does have size and battery life in its favor (and i like Exilim cameras...)

Of course I'll still need to try these guys out in person and see how I like them. So the verdict will come some time next weekend.  I'm going to Japan for a few days,  I'm going to buy a new camera while I'm there...  i'll give a full report when i return. :-P

...Or maybe i'll just settle on the Lumix FX-30... why? the reason is simple: