We went to Best Buy, Walmart (I heard they have good prices) and then I searched the internet. I am so glad I did. Two of the cameras I was trying to decide between got terrible reviews. The batteries wear out fast, not great pics, awful on action shots. One was a Canon 130 IS and the other a Nikon. Both were point and shoots.
I finally contacted a friend who is a photographer and she recommended the Canon G12. I searched the reviews on line and found them very favorable (easy to use, different settings to play with if you want to without being too complicated). The only draw back was for rapid action photos but that can be remedied with a separate flash attachment so it does not pull from camera body. You can even get an optional lens for greater zoom.
Ok so now I have to try this camera. No one close buy has it in stock or even one to try! Guess what, the canon factory was located in the area of the Japanese earthquake so stock is difficult to find. Great! I went back to the internet and thought I hate to buy it without even trying it first but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do right? You'll never guess. I went to the Best Buy website and saw it was on sale, $100.00 off! What is even better is I called the store located about 40 minutes from us and they had 3 in stock. How sweet is that? Needless to say we got back in the car and, after a quick lesson on how to use this, we came home with the G12! I love this camera. Check out these pics.
