I'm looking for non SLR extended zoom camera, so far come up with Canon S3 IS, Sony H5 and Kodak P712. Any suggestions?

Hi Mark,

These are all good choices, and they're all quite comparable with one another. My personal preference is for the S3 IS, as Canon's image quality is--to me--by far the most lifelike and clear. However, I almost want to recommend you get the older S2 IS, which is significantly cheaper and not that much improved on by the S3 IS. In fact, many reviewers and users liked it better.

Frankly, though, you'd do well to get any of these cameras. They all have small areas where they shine over the others (the S3 has by far the best movie mode, the P712 has Kodak's trademark smooth user interface, and the Sony has a huge screen) but in general they're pretty comparable. I'd suggest going in to a major electronics store and trying as many of them out in your hand as possible. That's the best way to make a choice, always.

Good luck!

I'd go with the S3 IS as well (though I may be slightly biased since I own one). Kodak's photo quality has never impressed me, and though the Sony may be comparable to the Canon, you have to use Sony's brand of memory card, which just bugs me, but that may just be my own personal issue. ;)

I recently faced the same choices (only I also thought of Panasonic), and ended up getting the Canon, so far I'm quite happy with it. What put it over the top was the swivel screen and feature that allowed you to shoot a video while shooting pictures.
Sony was a close second, I had a Sony before S3 IS for 3,5 years and was very pleased with its performance. I actually see the fact that Sony uses its own memory card as a huge plus - never did I have a problem with its memory sticks, and the very first memory card I got for a Canon died on me 3 days later, so I believe that by making their own memory cards, Sony are better able to control the quality. Unless you own or plan to own more than one camera, and one of them will not be a Sony, it's not an issue at all.
Kodak never seemed like quite a match to the other three options to me, so I eliminated it rather early on.

Hi mark
Olympus SP-550 UZ have an 18x ultra extended zoom. But I have no experiences with that. But I know S3 is better.