Compare movie mode etc canon s70, olympus 7000, canon A95

[kirbykirby]

I am looking for my first digital camera and need help makeing a decision. The following features/capabilities are important so I would like to know which iperforms better or worse in the following areas:

low light/indoor photos
fast shutter speed
Optical 3+
movie recording capabilities
LCD 1.8 or greater
Image quality (of course)

I am considering the following cameras and can't seem to make a decision

Canon s70
Olympus C7000
Canon A95

I also just read a review of the Sony DSC W1 and found that is provides all the features that I am looking so I am also considering this camera.

I orginally liked the Panazonic F7 because of reported photo quality and image stabilization but ruled it out because of size.

I don't want to buy more camera than I need but it seems that you get so much more in the way of features when you spend that extra $100 ($350 to $450). I would like spend less than $500

[Newbie]

I can't talk about the Olympus camera, so I'll talk about the others and for the record I am a Canon A95 owner.

I'll tell you what I think and/or have read about each of your criteria, so for that purpose I will separate all in categories.

low light/indoor photos
A95: The camera has an AF assist lamp so it helps, but it can hunt quite a bit, generally speaking Canon is behind in this category, but its still acceptable IMHO.
S70: same as A95
W1: Sony generally performs above average in this category, they can really deliver the job.

fast shutter speed
I'm not sure what you mean by fast shutter speed, do you mean the fact that the fastest shutter is 1/2000 or that the camera is responsive, I will consider the later in my answer.
A95: The camera is not the best, but is about average, it depends whether or not you are prefocused.
S70: Same as A95
W1: its said to be quite fast and responsive

Optical 3+
A95: has 3x, 38-114;, 38mm is not so great at wide angle and often its better to have more wide angle than more telephoto.
S70: has 3.6x, 28-100; 28mm is excellent, giving you the most wide angle available for prosumer cameras without the use of other lenses. 100mm is just fine for telephoto, almost the same as 114mm.
W1: same as A95

movie recording capabilities
A95: Not too great movie mode, but still interesting considering its a camera(not comparable to better movie modes tho). At 640x480 you can only record for 30seconds and at only 10fps or you can go to 320x240 for 3minutes at 15fps.
S70: Same as A95 ? If the numbers aren't the same, the conclusion is; not a great movie mode, but its nice to have the ability of doing so on a camera.
W1: Provided that you use a memory stick Pro card, you get some excellent movie mode(considering its a camera) 640x480 @30fps for unlimited time.

LCD 1.8 or greater
A95: 1.8" and swiveling, gains up in dim light.
S70: 1.8", gains up, but not much
W1: 2.5", does not gain up in dim light ?

Image quality (of course)
A95: Very good image quality
S70: Excellent image quality and it has RAW if you want(tho I doubt it)
W1: Very good image quality, but some people report that the noise reduction is too high and that it softens the pictures.

Having said all that, I'd recommend the S60 over the S70(since you don't want to buy more than you need and since I'm not for the migapixel war).
Having looked at all that, it seems that the W1 suits you best because you do not consider manual controls which is where the S70 and A95 win over the W1.
The W1 does have some sort of manual controls, but not as much as the others and it specially lacks the custom white balance which can be useful in tricky situations.