"David J Taylor" wrote in message ...

For a long zoom camera, I would now regard image stabilisation as an
essential feature.

That is a nice luxury feature, but it is better to not assume that
everyone's needs are the same as yours. I shoot mostly landscapes and
cityscapes on a tripod, with the lens stopped down. I would have very
little or no use for IS. Going back to the old days, the best
photographers lived without such tools as IS. The emphasis was on
optics. The Olympus C-8080 has a lens on it with virtually no
distortion throughout the entire zoom range. This can not be said
about any other ZLR.

Different people have different needs. (Depeche Mode) :-)