Help find a new family camera

[Skillz'n Magic]

I'm looking to upgrade from my Kodak Easyshare 3.1MP camera. Pretty easy since it's a pile of crap but I need some general guidance.

The main use is just family pictures. The most important feature to me is image stabilization as I've lost countless pictures to this Kodak because it's so shaky. I'd also want something that is fast, I don't want to wait long between pictures.

So basically I'm looking for a fast point-and-shoot with excellent IS and my budget is $300-$500. Can I get some recommendations? Here's what I've been looking at so far:

Canon G9
Canon PowerShot A650 IS
Nikon Coolpix P5100
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS
Olympus SP-570 UZ

I'm not set on any of these, nor do I have any brand loyalty, just letting you know where I've been.

 

[Skillz'n Magic]

After playing with some of the cameras at BB I decided to order the G9 from Newegg. I figure it's better to have too much camera rather than too little.

Thanks for the replies....

 

[BMWlover]

The G9 is a great camera, you won't regret it. The build quality on it is top quality, same for the LCD. Since you were only interested in point and shoots, The G9, while not the best value in terms of price for performance, that spot is taken by the Canon SD, has a huge amount of features for its size, and oozes quality. Were you turned off by the size of DLSRs? I like Nikons, but the interface on the coolpix is not as straight forward imo, as the canons. Enjoy it.

 

[Skillz'n Magic]

Thanks for the reply, it makes me feel better that someone who knows what they're talking about says I made good purchase.

I needed something that was easy for the wife to use (she's intelligent, but uninterested in techie stuff) that would also provide good quality. I figured with the G9 I have room to learn more about picture taking. While not a hobbyist camera by any means, it will give me more control over shots and will hopefully lead to better shots over time.