Compact Digital Cameras - which one?

[iluvmercs]

I currently own a Canon IXUS 75, which has been serving me well for just over 18 months and 15,000+ photos. But it's got a bit battered and bruised after being taken out for various alcohol-filled evenings, lots of car events, day trips and even a few scuba diving excursions with it's camera case!
So it's a time to upgrade. I've been happy with this Canon, but all the current Canons don't have a great zoom. Mine has a 3.5x optical, but then up to 12x digital zoom. All the Canons seem to have ditched digital zoom.
Is this a general thing which has happening to compact digital cameras?
I think any camera I can get now will have more than the 7.1 Megapixels my current camera has.

Which camera would you all recommend for around £250-300? Why would you choose this model?

Many thanks,

Darren

[Monochrome]

If you want to zoom. Optical zoom is what you want to worry about. Digital zoom is the same as cropping and then enlarging the image, you loose quality.

[Simpo Two]

iluvmercs said:

Which camera would you all recommend for around £250-300? Why would you choose this model?

Jeepers, you can get a 'proper' camera for that much Darren! Personally I'd avoid anything with too many pixels because you'll get poor low-light performance/noise - other than that, and knowing what you get up to, how about the cider-proof Olympus? Find it at www.dpreview.com

And yes, digital zoom is merely cropping, so no point - stick with optical.

[Scho]

G10's seem to be the daddy at the moment.

[Poledriver]

Both Olympus and Panasonic have 10Mp 10x optical zoom compacts at the moment. I got the Olympus and have had some brilliant results!!