I agree that having a point and shoot that uses AA batteries is great but... well, I'm guilty of owning a camera that has a proprietary battery. Mine is a Panasonic ZS25 and I've got to say, I adore this little camera. It has manual modes (A,S,M) and I use them all the time. 20x optical zoom with stabilizer is an absolute dream. It takes great photos and also shoots excellent quality 1080p video. I carry it with me all the time and use it constantly. It charges by USB and when I'm on vacation, I keep an external USB battery with me just in case I need it (although I've never actually had to use it. The battery seems to last forever if I'm not recording hours of video each day.)
