my camera died

as i said in my previus post, i went to shimonoseki some days ago... in this trip my camera fell down and just where the lenses are. it was a samsung digimax V4 (4 megapixels), which gave me a lot of function , easy to use and nice pictures, except in some interiors or with low light where pictures where blured. i liked very much the battery. good camera after all.

anyway is a time to look for a better replacement and (as a good engineer) i am about a little geeky with specifications and i will like some manual controlers. and there is a size limit, it cannot be larger than my old camera, that one was a little builky but just the maximum size for carring it around in the pocket or in a belt bag. one more thing, i hate the memory stick of sony so it cannot be a sony (this memory card made me not to buy the psp!!). the reason is that this memory stick is too expensive and big (also the color is bad, but not important).

after searching in 2 good camera review websites:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/
http://reviews.cnet.com/Digital_cameras/2001-6501_7-0.html?tag=glnav

i have decided one from those 2 companies:
panasonic or canon

panasonic has a new 16:9 aspect ratio camera, lumix lx1 -58,800yen-,that i can use it to watch the pics in my computer and the high definion tvs. (which i aim to do some time in the future)

canon has slightly better quality and its power shot s80 -58,300yen- is same size as my old camera, but with the double of megapixels (8). i really dont need that much since i dont make posters and usually make a lot of shots at lower resolutions than that. but maybe some time i could like to take a picture of a panoramic view.

the problem with these 2 cameras is that they are still heavy or not so well suited to bring in the pocket. so i am thinking on maybe a not so big camera (and cheapear also).

size vs quality? it is not posible to have it all. i am starting to think on a middle pont camera but for sure i will decide in the last minute in the store where i can touch and see the cameras for my self, making those the strongest candidates.

the 3rd candidate is a canon (power shot 620 -39,800yen-), a little more bigger but the lcd screen can be taken out and rotated, wow i really apreciate these function, specially if you want to take a picture of yourself and there is no one around to help. the downside is the size of the camera... if the other cameras had that funcion...

4th candidates, down a category, are the panasonic lumix fx9 (6 mega pixels) -42,000yen- and canon ixy 700 (7.1 megapixels) -47,700yen-.

if you have some advice it is welcome...