This class of camera came about in order to satisfy the dreams of those who would have a digital SLR... IF they could afford it and the lenses they'd like.
The image quality of the Canon SX10IS is pretty good but you always give up some image quality to gain such a large zoom range so there is a small bit of chromatic aberration, purple fringing, in the extreme zoom ranges.
The one thing that I do miss is a remote shutter release, I like to do night photography. The 2 second self-timer setting helps a bit to overcome this oversight. Also the operating temperature range is a bit limited, 32 degrees F. Anyone who likes to take winter photos may have to keep the camera under cover, against their bodies when not shooting. I haven't tried it in below freezing temperatures yet so I don't know the practical limitations as yet.
If even this price range is too much I'd strongly suggest the Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd at less then half the price. It has most of the features though less zoom and no external flash hotshoe. I bought the Fuji as an early Christmas present for my girlfriend and she's quite enjoying it.
March 9, 2009 UPDATE:
This has been a very good "consumer" camera but there are two things that bug me about it so far.
The first is that the Command Dial (I think that's what they call it) is not very responsive at all. You'll see other people complain about it as well. If you are using the dial to make exposure adjustments or if you are selecting "Scene" settings then jerk the dial in 1/4 turn increments. Simply using a smooth dialing motion won't work. Secondly, it really sucks for manually focusing! It is really hard to manually focus this camera. *so sad*
Secondly... because this is a consumer level camera the CCD sensor, the chip that senses the light in place of film, is a smaller sensor then pro or semi-pro cameras. This has the very sad side effect of creating "digital noise". This is the equivalent of higher ASA/ISO film having more grain and in some ways is to be expected BUT if you can afford one of the higher priced DSLR cameras then I'd go for that as the larger sensors have less digital noise.
If you want to get a little better image out of this smaller sensor try using the "dust and scratch" removal settings in your photo editing software. Try a 2 pixel setting first.
Overall it is still a great camera. If you move up to a DSLR later then keep it as a backup.Get more detail about Canon Powershot SX10IS 10MP Digital Camera with 20x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom.
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