I've recently had the urge to buy a point-and-shoot digital camera. There are times, particularly when doing food-related pics or schlepping around places doing guidebook research that I'd rather have a camera that I can carry with one hand or simply stuff in my pocket. I've also been influenced by this article by Peter Hessler, in which he explains how a small digital camera proved helpful in the writing his excellent new book, Country Driving. In the piece he describes how looking at digital snapshots, sometimes several years after they were taken, helped to remind him of details he'd forgotten and contributed to the quality and accuracy of his writing.
I've played around with using my iPhone, but its images (an example of which, taken recently in Melbourne, Australia, is shown above) just don't cut it. Any recs? Ideally I want something with a fast lens (f/2) and at least some degree of manual control. I was initially drawn to Leica's digital point-and-shoots, largely because I've long wanted to own something with the Leica logo, but they're expensive and generally don't get very strong reviews. The Canon PowerShot S90 seems to get high ratings and is affordable. And apparently a particular model of Ricoh has garnered substantial praise from those who do lots of food-related photography.