OT: Digital Cameras, Need good comparison websites Options

[Qarl]

Looking to get a new Digital Camera. I'd like to read some good comparisons of the different models.

One of the things that interest me is battery life. My current Nikon lasta about 24-40 pictures with flash on it's proprietary lithium ion battery. I have to carry 2 or 3 batteries around to fill up a 128 MB compact flash disk.

I am looking for...

4 to 5 mega pixels
Compact Flash
Point and shoot style with a good size.
Good flash coverage
Optical and digital zoom
Excellent battery life
Direct upload from camera to PC via cable(so I don't have to always remove Compact Flash) card.

I'd like to stick with Nikon, Canon, Olympus, or Minolta

$400 or less

I thought about getting the Canon Digital Rebel so I could use my Canon EOS AF lenses, but I couldn't justify the price or the big size.

[Rusty]

My current digital camera is a Kodak DC5000.

It's big and heavy. Battery life is okay (4-AA batteries), and uses flashcards. It has a nice tripod mount on the bottom. USB compatible. 2.0 megapixel.

Why did I get such an "average" camera? Because it's waterproof, dustproof, mudproof. I dropped it in the Red Sea, it sank 3-4 meters in saltwater while I (swore repeatedly, then) quickly dove in after it. I brought it up, rinsed it in bottled water, and kept taking pictures. It has o-rings to keep all the critical compartments sealed up, including a optical quality removable/replaceable lense cover. I always shoot through the cover, and my pictures are pretty good (considering I'm only slightly better than Andy at taking pictures). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

It's *not* a dive camera (I have a cheap analog camera good to 21 meters); I'm lucky that I caught it before it went any deeper. But for extreme environments - it's great.

-Rusty (IMG:style_emoticons/default/scuba.gif)