Dan's post about Nikon's new compact Nikon-1 got me thinking about some current ultra-zoom point and shoot models available. I've been curious about this camera format since the Olympus PEN came out, and wondered if (for me), it was worth the extra cost and "hassle" of lens changes. His explanation about image quality made me decide a P&S is sufficient for my needs, given that I am not likely to have any photos published anywhere.
I've been waiting for a waterproof ultra-zoom, but I'm starting to think those options are mutually exclusive. At this point, as zoom is more important to me (since it would be used 90% of the time on land), I think I may get a Canon Powershot SX220 or a Nikon COOLPIX S9100 and keep it in a waterproof case until needed. Not wanting to hi-jack Dan's thread, I decided to post this one to ask if he or anyone else had any thoughts on those models, or other new ultra-zoom point-and-shoots?Dan_Millsip said:The image quality [of a high-zoom point-and-shoot] for the web and for viewing on a monitor is quite sufficient and spectacular results can be had. The vast majority of the images in our Wallpaper section were taken by Mark Schilling and myself with ultra-zoom point and shoot cameras.