i've gone through the headache of research you are doing now

and after looking at 100s of cameras i norrowed it down to a few including that Fuji one

but i think size, features and just awesome awesome reviews about Canon won me over

i am very impressed and happy with the decision

i'm no pro as you can see from some of my shots LOL but some of these shots i take do turn out bloody nice i tell ya

macro is excellent on the camera and there are some nifty manual controls which used to be a bit of a put off but now i can't see myself usin simpler cameras

one thing that did sort of worry be was 6xoptical zoom but i tell ya what >> i was shocked to see how food the 24x zoom was turning out with extra digital zoom (i used to frown upon it too lol)

how serious are you about this..............?

maybe look at something more advanced with pro lens if so