I am not very camera savy but I have seen many of the photo's that you guys take and I am very impressed. Anyway, my wife loves taking pictures and wants to get a digital camera to take some good watersports action shots. I was going to buy her a new camera for Christmas. I really don't think she will want one of the "professional" models with all the lenses, but she would like a good quality camera with a good optical zoom and good burst shooting. We would just like to capture some of family's watersports activities with some great pictures like you guys turn out. I looked at the Cannon S2Is. Would this be a good choice?

Oh, one more thing. If the above camera is not a good choice, can your give me some recommendations. I also looked at the Canon A620 but I didn't think the zoom would be good enough.

My pop's got the Powershot S1 IS and it's pretty darn nice. The updated version is the S2 and is comparable to my new Kodak P850. Both Canons I mentioned are like 10x or 12x, capture nice 30 frame per second VGA video and have image stabilization. Not sure how good their burst is, but mine sure stinks. Would just go video and then print "wallet-size" stills from it I reckon. Either way, these are definitely not high-end and all will have shortcomings. <BR> <BR>It's cool that the Canon's got an LCD that you can fold inwards to protect, but the display on the P850's huge and beautiful. <BR> <BR>I got mine through Beach Camera (<a href="http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/home.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/home.aspx</a>) and was very pleased with the price and speed. Who know's how they'll handle warranty work, but impression sof far's been great. <BR> <BR>Also got a lense adapter deal through Kodak that holds a 55mm filter, but more importantly for me is that it protects the entire movable lense assembly from impact and the elements. You can get one for the Canon, too, but it sort of locks in while the Kodak threads in. <BR> <BR>I like the fact that the Kodak's got a Lithium battery, but also appreciate that if your Canon's rechargeables wear out you can just throw some Energizers in there. <BR> <BR>Three nice features of the P850 over the S2IS are: hotshoe for mounting a flash, manual focus option (I do use that frequently), and $60 less expensive at last check. <BR> <BR>Having said all that, I've been looking at the mid-range Kodaks for some time and only checked out the Canon after getting my P850. If I knew then what I know now, I just MAY have gone with the S1 IS, as it can be had for pretty darn cheap now. Give up a few pixels, but it's got IS and that's a biggy for me for shooting indoors without flash.