Michael it's a shame that you aren't happy with the camera. From what I've heard it's brilliant and I know there are a few about here who use the same one or it's younger sister. A few times looking about on photography forums I've been tempted to change to Canon

I have a Nikon D70s and it's got a terrific auto mode.It's almost DH proof but he still manages to take disasterous photos with it. I'm sure it's to do with him not taking any notice of what the grid in the viewfinder is doing or which sections are highlighted. If I'm not happy with what the camera has decided is the main subject I take my finger of the button and half depress it again or zoom back a bit and try again.


I'm sure you can turn off the flash if you don't want it to fire even with auto mode. Another way to prevent the flash firing is to try a mode such as sports which uses a higher ISO. The flash won't fire at all on mine when I use it. Even if I want it to.
With my Nikon I can use the auto focus but have the camers in manual mode so I choose my aperature and s/s. This is good when I don't want to waste time focusing.
The other thing that could be causing an issue with pics being out of focus is what the camera chooses the aperture to be in auto mode. Is the whole pic out of focus, or is the foreground/background the only part in focus? The AV mode will let you select the aperture so you could make it f18 so it's a nice deep depth of field and let the camera do the rest.

The problem as I see it is that you will get shutter lag with the majority of the p&s digital cameras and that is what you want to avoid! Even my dad's top of the line fugi finepix one has shutter lag and that one has semi manual functions. When I use it it drives me bonkers and Dad is always getting pics of the back of the kids heads.

What is your film slr? Mine is an f65 and I just love to get it out and use up a roll of film. I miss the sound of the film rolling on

Not sure if I've been much help. Hopefully on of the Canon girls can give you some ideas.