Current favorite family P&S?

I'm wondering if there is consensus on a good family point-and-shoot
camera. In particular:
- fast focus, even in low light, for capturing kids
- capable of giving reasonable snapshots indoors (incandescent lighting)
- reasonably compact (1/2 lbs and fits in a coat pocket or smallish
belt case)

Also, I'd prefer 28 mm wide angle, but I suspect that's hopeless. I
bought a Panasonic FX01. Nice camera in good light, but it did so poorly
indoors with low light (slow focus, very noisy images) that I returned
it. The Canon S80 has slow focus (but otherwise seems very nice).

So far I know of:
- Casio Z750 - fast, some complaints of poor image quality and easy
breakage but overall seems well liked
- Fuji F10/11 (or the upcoming F30). I can't get a handle on this one.
Some folks love it, others seem to hate it. The focus seems a bit slow
unless one turns on fast focus (which according to dpreview means it
can't focus closer than 1m? that could be a problem indoors).
- Sonys have fast focus (at least in decent light), but again a lot of
folks are down on them.

-- Russell

Interesting you didn't like the Panasonic... I got the lx1 about a month ago
and find the shutter lag to be very slight...and you can put the focus in
manual for even fast response.

"Russell E. Owen" wrote in message
...
I'm wondering if there is consensus on a good family point-and-shoot
camera. In particular:
- fast focus, even in low light, for capturing kids
- capable of giving reasonable snapshots indoors (incandescent lighting)
- reasonably compact (1/2 lbs and fits in a coat pocket or smallish
belt case)

Also, I'd prefer 28 mm wide angle, but I suspect that's hopeless. I
bought a Panasonic FX01. Nice camera in good light, but it did so poorly
indoors with low light (slow focus, very noisy images) that I returned
it. The Canon S80 has slow focus (but otherwise seems very nice).

So far I know of:
- Casio Z750 - fast, some complaints of poor image quality and easy
breakage but overall seems well liked
- Fuji F10/11 (or the upcoming F30). I can't get a handle on this one.
Some folks love it, others seem to hate it. The focus seems a bit slow
unless one turns on fast focus (which according to dpreview means it
can't focus closer than 1m? that could be a problem indoors).
- Sonys have fast focus (at least in decent light), but again a lot of
folks are down on them.

-- Russell

Interesting you didn't like the Panasonic... I got the lx1 about a month ago
and find the shutter lag to be very slight...and I can put the focus in
manual for even faster response.

Kodak's new V570 has a 23mm wide-angle lens and very fast focus,
according to published reviews. It's not a perfect solution but the
23mm lens, along with the second 39-117mm zoom is a hard combination to
beat.

I find, though, that wide-angle lenses don't do justice to family
photos unless the subjects are gathered in the center of the frame.
Faces just become distorted at the edges of a wide shot.

That said, I currently use a Canon SD400 (very fast startup and AF,
with assist light) and a Kodak DX7630, which has an equally fast hybrid
AF system.

Good luck.

-CD