rogerd - 8:45 pm on Apr 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

I picked up an Olympus Camedia 4000 (4MP) not long ago. It's bulkier than the Stylus (shaped rather like a cross between a rangefinder film camera and a mini-SLR - complete with a fat side for the non-existent motor drive), but has a ton of controls for manual and controlled automatic operation. Good size lens, too.

No complaints about picture quality. I find the controls have a bit of a learning curve - you can change anything, but you have to find the right button/menu/etc. to get at it. I'd say it's a good camera if you plan to do fairly fussy photos that require manual control. For more casual shooting I'd say the Stylus and Coolpix models are more pocketable and convenient.

One cool feature is the panorama mode. Shooting in this mode lets you combine multiple shots into a single panorama. As a test, I hand-held the camera for a few overlapping photos inside a room. I was amazed when the software somehow knit these together into a passable panorama. Seemed like black magic. I imagine doing this with a bubble-level tripod could produce some really amazing stuff.