A Lens with a Handle?

My first impression of the camera was that it was a long lens attached to a grip, but after using it for a few weeks, it's become pretty intuitive to use. As a longtime Canon EOS user, I was sold by the EOS-type control dial, the ability to use one of my Speedlites as an external flash, and the use of standard 58mm filters.

The camera is a little pricey considering the lens assembly limits it to 2.6 megapixels even thought it has a 3.x megapixel array, but if you want compatibility with existing EOS equipment AND a long zoom range AND Image Stabilitization, this is a third the price of the D30 SLR body. If you don't have any EOS stuff already, you might want to consider the Olympus C2100UZ which uses the same lens assembly, including the stabilizer. The Canon features and the fact that I already had a large amount of compact flash memory pointed me towards the Powershot.