Carl Zeiss lens is one of the best camera lens around.Even a few Nokia N series phones use them. You can find CZ lens mostly in Sony cameras.

The disadvantge of S650 is the movie recording is QCIF quality which is bad for muvie recording.

ahh ok. that #1 and #2 i donno already.

what you can do is to actually test it out. after snapping, see how long it takes before you get to shoot the next.

as for battery life, i'd say best is to refer to reviews (if any).

of my 3 cameras, 2 are using AA batteries. i'd say the AA battery is great for convenience (emergency batteries) but yet at the same time they're not so convenient to carry around.

and since you want to capture some movie here and there, make sure the camera you buy CAN record sound as well.

A550 dont have IS, see this IS vs no IS:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat...thread=21607673

and its quite big, not really pocketable.

mfa333, try having a prosumer camera using 4x AA batteries and having 3 sets of it.

my S7000 is a battery guzzler. if i don't use the LCD and manual focus lens ring then it's quite long lasting.
yeah. some models don't capture sound.

both my compact and prosumer don't capture sound even though they can do videos.

what do you mean? dont get you, it should be able to do that.
u mean from camera to pc? you have the usb cable, use it.

i dont have canon camera, i dont think you need the software, the OS should detect the camera as an external drive and you can directly copy files from windows explorer, this is how it should work.

theoretically it should, my Olympus also works like that. detected as external drive.

however i've used Canon Ixus before and so have other people, and they have that annoying piece of software which i'm not sure if it's a MUST / NEED but when i was using that camera (from my previous employment) it is as such.

what i do avoid the software is to get a memory card reader.

depends on the person.