Impressive specs, Ryan, but I would take some heed of the reviewer's comments at Amazon about the camera's shortcomings; very long shutter delay in auto modes, and the second poster wasn't all that thrilled with the image quality. I have a Canon A640, a more recent version of the A610 that he is comparing it to and I can attest to the A640's excellent image quality. If you're considering cameras in that price range, I would highly recommend it. No, it doesn't have a jaw-dropping 18X optical zoom, but it does have a very solid set of features and takes great shots. I took it to Europe with me this summer after weighing (quite literally!) the option of taking my DSLR and all its lenses, and decided to go with the A640 instead. It was not a decision I regretted, for the most part, and that says quite a lot.
Another user at dpreview had similar complaints about the image quality of the Olympus:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read_opini...p;opinion=37839That would certainly give me pause, since in the end, image quality is paramount.
The problem you're seeing is that the camera is only now trickling into stores, though it was announced back in August. None of the reputable review sites have done a review of it, and there are very few user reviews available yet either. I found one of those "quasi-reviews" - the ones that are nothing more than ad placement disguised as a review, but they're not to be relied on.
While that 18X zoom is pretty impressive, there may be better choices out there, with lots of user experience/feedback and thorough painstaking reviews and tests to guide you. Have a good look at
http://dpreview.com and use their comparison tool to compare features and user reviews, and read their exhaustive reviews for P&S cameras in that price range. Steve's Digicams also has helpful and thorough reviews.
