Can anyone help answer some more detailed questions about the Nikon S10?

Hi Joey,
I may not be able to answer everything, but I'll try to help.

1. Sort of depends on what you mean by 'action photography.' This camera tends to be slow in a few areas: when you use the flash, it can run slow in shot-to-shot times (meaning from when you take one photo until it's ready to take another), and when you use the zoom, the auto focus sometimes has to hunt for a bit before it will hone in on the subject. It's not the slowest camera out there, but not the fastest either. If you are just looking for something with a decent shutter response time, you may be just fine. But I think there may be better options.

2. Shutter speed cannot be manually controlled. You can somewhat change the effect of it by choosing from various Scene modes; for example, the Sports mode will have a different effect than the basic mode, but if you want serious manual control over how the photo turns out you probably won't be able to do it.

3. Again, not a lot of manual control here. And what you can change (scene modes, AE compensation, white balance)... honestly, are kind of confusing to get to, the menus are rather complicated.

4. Not bad quality movies, and the length you'll get depends on the size of your memory. One thing to watch for is that the sound apparently cuts out at the end of the clip. This happens with many of the Coolpix, not sure why, but I've heard multiple reviewers mention it.

5. Physically, very well built camera, nice and solid; I don't know for sure if the screen locks in place but I assume it does. Many complaints, though, about the screen making the camera awkward to hold (you have to put your thumbs on the LCD) and it is very easy to bump the buttons/ joystick inadvertently.

So... hmm. I know it sounds like I'm ragging on this camera, which I'm not, but I think there might be something better out there for you. Any thoughts/ other models you are considering?