I had the S2 IS. Dont sell yourself short. the Panasonic FZ series is a much better camera IMO. This is coming from ownership of the Canon and ownership of a FZ20 and FZ5 from Panasonic. The problem I had with the canon is the auto focus. It was getting 75% of them off and for shots that were right off the cuff I was getting pissed because they were out of focus and missed alot of shots. Also I dont know about the S3IS but the S2 did not have a low light light and in low light you can tottaly forget about an in focus shot at all.
The only thing I dont like about the Panasonic is its movie format is in quick time and needs to be converted over if your going to put on disk to play on a dvd player or edit. Other then that I can say, and review can back me up, that it gets 99% of its focus all the time. Before getting rid of the S2 IS I took the same shot with the Canon and the FZ5 and dare I say the FZ5 looked alot better. The pictures are clear and chrisp, and in focus. So if your going for thoes once in a life time shots where you turn it on and have to take the shot or lose it, chances are you will get it wilth a panasoinic. Dont get me wrong though, when the Canon did get the shots right the picture was sweet, but it did me no good for 90% of my shots of are nature and my family, and need the shot taken of the moment, and cant tell an animal or my son when he is doing something of the moment, to go do it 3-4 more times because the camera was out of focus.
Just food for thought, check out all the reviews on the canon and on the panasonic FZ 5, 7, 20, and the new 30 has a manual focus ring like the professional film cameras. Also all of them have a a professional Lecia Lens and 12x optical. And please what ever camera you look at if your going for close ups make sure to get the best Optical zoom and NEVER use the digital if you can help it for it makes the pictures suck.
I have had my FZ5 for over a year now and well over 5000 shots taken without a single problem. Yes it has its own battery, I think all the panasonics do, but you get more shots off the panny battery then you would the aa type and extras on ebay are super cheap. I picked up 2 extra batteries for my camera for under $10 shipped.
Pics taken with my camera:
Text
Text
Text
Text
macro
bears
ring
a fvcked up looking bug
dog smiles
brown recluse
the moon
More coming, just need to upload the ones my father, a professional photographer, took with my camera.