Whats the best ultra compact 5 megapixel (or more) digital camera that I can get?
I got the Exilim S500 for Christmas and love it. I already had a digicam, a Canon G2, but the problem was I rarely took any pictures of the fun moment in life because it was too big to carry around all the time. My requirements were similiar to yours: small, sexy, able to take good party pix fast. It’s very small, and more importantly, very thin. I keep it either in my jacket pocket, or when I ditch the jacket, the front pocket of my jeans with no embarassing bulge. I’m very happy with the pix it takes and it has fast performance for a digital camera. Cons: The built-in memory is comically insufficient: 8MB. But it takes SD, so I was able to upgrade it to 1GB for $50 after rebate. Also, you need to hook it up to its base station to get the images off, unless I’m mistaken. These are probably the costs of making it as small as it is.
You should probably be aware that many of your goals are contradictory. Smaller cameras have lenses that are generally slower (take in less light) and have more optical imperfections (distortion, fringing, etc). The small bodies have less room for batteries. Big screens draw more power. Smaller sensors and higher megapixels compromise low light performance. This is not to say that you won’t be able to find a camera that you are happy with, but it helps to be aware of the various compromises you might have to make. One “compromise” you should make right off the bat is to avoid anything much over 5 megapixels. The lenses on most compact cameras aren’t up to resolving much over 5Mpix anyway, plus the smaller pixel sizes result in more noise in low-light situations. For low-light performance, you want a camera that supports high ISO/ASA equivalents >=400 and that has acceptable levels of noise at those settings. You also want a camera with a fast lens aperature (smaller numbers are better)
