To anyone who's been following along, this will no doubt seem obvious. All my internet research and store wanderings on the hunt for a digital camera have only served to highlight all the things about them that irritate me. Ultimately, all I really want is a decent ultra-compact digital camera that will hold up to the wear and tear of carrying it everywhere in my pocket. There are decent, small digital cameras out there, but their prices are too high for me for something that may break easily or requires ginger care. So... I will wait for the prices to drop and to see what they develop next.
8 megapixel camera phones are about a year away, so there will be new stuff to see.
In the meantime, if you're on the hunt, I did find some great sites with up-to-date reviews. Consumer Reports and PC World were helpful starting points, but they frequently didn't have reviews or ratings for models released in the past 4 months.
Imaging resource has detailed reviews including pictures, all the features and settings offered, and all the test results I would ever want (which is a pretty extensive list). Their gift guide provides a good starting point with review summaries of cameras in different price ranges that performed well.
Digital Camera Resource also provides detailed reviews that also include screenshots and commentary on the included software. Their reviews also provide info on how the camera compares to other brands and models with similar features and design. Their sample photos give a decent feel for how the camera performs at different ISO settings, i.e., how clear the pictures are under different settings and conditions. (n.b.: it's always better to look at actual prints, but who wants to waste ink on someone else's sample shots?). This site seemed to have less models reviewed than some of the the others.
ZD Net ranks the cameras on a scale of 1 to 10 which is very helpful when comparing different models and brands. Reviews are broken into sections, so you can just read the intro summary or click for more details on features, design, performance, and image quality. The info is helpful, though not as comprehensive as the previous two sites. Some models include short video reviews by a staff member. I like these because they comment on the cameras from a user's perspective and sometimes mention things they like or dislike that don't come across in the written reviews.
Amazon has tech specs for most models and is a good place to check out consumer reviews. I usually skim past the 4 and 5 star, love-it reviews to see what problems people encountered after owning the camera for a while. If a lot of people had the same problem, e.g., the lcd cracked and wasn't covered by the warranty, that's very helpful to know.
If that's not enough to drive you crazy, there's Consumer Search which rates and reviews sites which review digital cameras.
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