Help me update my camera

I have been absent from this board for awhile and need to get some direction in my search for a new camera. Previously used Pentax ZX-7 and currently use mostly Canon S30. I mostly shoot images of young children and also nature. The difficulty I have is getting a crisp, focused shot with my digital point & shoot. Is it still true that it is nearly impossible to get those well focused shots of a child without using a digital SLR? Other than the Digital Rebel are there any other new cameras in the lower end market? Are the newer digital point & shoots able to give me those cleaner shots? If you could give me a little direction for my research, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

The Canon S30 is one of the finest of the S series cameras, I gave mine to my parents in favor of a G2 but the pictures they send me remind me what a great camera it is. You are right though, it is difficult to get quick action shots with a non SLR digicam. I think some changes in technique will help.
When I am using a point and shoot Digicam to take pictures of kids, I am constantly pressing and releasing the shutter halfway, while tracking my subject. I keep listening and looking for focus lock, and when a moment comes that I want to capture I am usually not too far away from focus lock. When I first got my S30 I was getting blurry shots because I was not waiting for focus lock, that is when I changed to the above technique. I rarely get a blurry shot due to focus any more.

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Originally Posted by DonnaDB

I have been absent from this board for awhile and need to get some direction in my search for a new camera. Previously used Pentax ZX-7 and currently use mostly Canon S30. I mostly shoot images of young children and also nature. The difficulty I have is getting a crisp, focused shot with my digital point & shoot. Is it still true that it is nearly impossible to get those well focused shots of a child without using a digital SLR? Other than the Digital Rebel are there any other new cameras in the lower end market? Are the newer digital point & shoots able to give me those cleaner shots? If you could give me a little direction for my research, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

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I just made a decision to replace my S30 with a Panasonic Lumix FZ20. It's a 5Meg P&S (On the large side dimension wise) with a Leica designed lens with 12x optical zoom. While the shutter response is not equal to what an SLR might have it is reported to be much better than I get with my S30. It also has image stabilization which could help you when hand holding in an active environment. I haven't recieved the camera yet so this is just a recommendation to take a look at the online reviews and tests (google FZ20 to get several of them) and go to a local store to handle one. I think this camera does have some trade offs and is not the best camera for all occasions but will probably fill my needs (camera wise) pretty well and at least be a big improvement over my current P&S. Street price is around $500US

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Originally Posted by Chunk

I just made a decision to replace my S30 with a Panasonic Lumix FZ20. It's a 5Meg P&S (On the large side dimension wise) with a Leica designed lens with 12x optical zoom. While the shutter response is not equal to what an SLR might have it is reported to be much better than I get with my S30. It also has image stabilization which could help you when hand holding in an active environment. I haven't recieved the camera yet so this is just a recommendation to take a look at the online reviews and tests (google FZ20 to get several of them) and go to a local store to handle one. I think this camera does have some trade offs and is not the best camera for all occasions but will probably fill my needs (camera wise) pretty well and at least be a big improvement over my current P&S. Street price is around $500US

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Thanks for the idea. I will do some research on it.