It depends whether you just want it for cycling. In my case I have an SLR for fancy stuff, and I am getting a 4 meg Canon with an the best optical zoom numbers I can find. It should be less than $200 and it will use AAs I can get on the road. If you are an experience (possibly older photographer), the kind of person who takes the pics carefully and not by holding up the camera between two fingers and flashing away (can be good at sports events), then you are unlikely to need image stabilisation with the lenses on these smaller units. IS can suck up a lot of battery juice, if it's a mechanical system.