Best P&S under $300?

[jdoggg12]

I'm looking for a P&S camera to hold me over till i get a D80 or XTi. I want something that takes good pics in day light and AT LEAST decent pics (for a p&s) shots at night.

My criteria are as follows:
-easy to put in your jean pocket (something like a G7 is waaay too big)
-high quality pictures, i'm looking for quality not megapixels
- ~$300 or less
-preferably have some manual setting options (not a must)

So far, I looked at:

sd800 IS: Good overall performer, i heard SD700 was much better, but out of my budget

sd1000: i liked the portability, but the performance doesn't seem to be up to par with the other choices i've looked at

f31fd: i cant really seem to find it anywhere online. reviews say its slow and the menu is difficult

f40fd: lower performance than the f30, almost not worth considering?


Any help from the experienced users would be appreciated. I am still considering all of the above and am open to experienced suggestions. Things i havent considered would be appreciated too.

Thanks!

 

[corkyg]

You have to go a long way to beat this camera at the quoted price:

S3 IS

 

[jdoggg12]

Thanks for the suggestion, but from the looks of it, i think it fails the 'easy to put in your pocket' test

 

[TheDrake]

if all your looking for is IQ then the f31fd cant be beat. I wouldnt touch much of the others that you mentioned, but finding a Slim P&S and still keeping IQ is always going to be fighting each other. You will always sacrafice featues/size for IQ.

 

[jdoggg12]

So the things i'm looking for in a camera, what would be a good runner up to the f31fd? Its not for sale anywhere online

 

[magomago]

Well it will be hard to reconcile having it "small enough to toss in a pocket" and have good IQ.

with that said you said you can't find the F31d anywhere, and menus were slow. I don't think that the menu was slow at all - it was pretty responsive. I haven't used it in a while, but I recall that it has some menu animations which might be the cause. Other than that taking pictures felt speedy. although if you must know, manual mode is really slim pickings in the f31d.
If anything, use your P&S as just that- point and shoot, and leave the manual settings to your future DSLR purchase

 

[troytime]

sony t20

slim, fits perfectly into front pocket
durable

and takes mighty fine photos and movies

 

[davestar]

The Panasonic DMC-TZ3 is definitely worth checking out. 28-280mm lens. I spent 2 weeks in Europe with it in my pocket 8-10 hours a day.

Results are here (Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Krakow only)

 

[ElFenix]

save some pennies for the slr