Indeed, those were on my list of possibili---wait what? You're sitting there saying "Sony?
Sony??". Because you already looked at the picture, I know. And yes, I know, I had like 5 years solid of seething hatred for all things Sony after my super-expensive laptop bit the dust in under two years. Well, I'm going to try out their camera. Now, back to the original thing....
...And actually the
Panasonic Lumix was a formidable contender but, after trying one out in the store, I couldn't
stand its shutter button. It sounds petty, and perhaps it is capable of doing so, but I could
not get it to take consecutive pictures without getting
completely off the shutter button. It was more annoying than it sounds like it should be.
Anyway, I just ordered a camera and it was none of the aforementioned products, nor an
Olympus Tough. I ordered a
Sony DSC-TX5. It touts all the requisite water and dustproof attributes, is very small, and has a nice sliding lens cover (Panasonic bewildered everyone by leaving this off their camera). I played with a similar model in Best Buy. Macro mode was very nice. It also did very well in the low(ish) light setting of the store.
It has a resistive touchscreen on the back. I'm not a touchscreen lover, per so, but the model in the store was actually very easy to use. Fun, almost. It has a cool "sweeping panoramic" mode that is awesome and you will have to try it. It'll be here in a week or two.
On a vaguely related note, I carried my current Canon pocket-cam in my back jeans pocket today. It was a lot more comfortable than in my front pocket. Maybe I have a new pocket-cam-pocket.
