S500 vs SD400 vs DSC-W5 vs F10

[wave]

Hi! My first post here I am thinking in buying a new camera and I would like to hear your opinions. I think that these are my best options:

Canon PS S500 (Ixus 500). It's a bit old, but I can get it at a really good price here in Spain (260$).

Canon PS SD400 (Ixus 50). Is it really better than the S500? 390$

Sony DSC-W5. It seems a good camera and I have read that it has many manual controls, 312$

Fuji F10. It seems that this camera can take very good quality photos (better than canon?), 338$

Any other idea?

So what do you think that is the best deal? I'm a bit reticent to buy a Canon because of that famous E18 error. Are there so many cameras affected?

What I'm looking for in order of importance is:

1. image quality
2. robustness/reliability


Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.

300$ or 400$, but I wouldn't like to spend a lot.

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?

I would like an ultracompact one, but I would go for a bigger one if it is really better (image quality) and it has the same price.

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?

5mpix

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)

Standard

* How important is "image quality" to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)

9

Do you care for manual controls?

Not a lot...

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?

City photos/indoor photos. Also as a travel camera.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?

No, I won't.

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?

Yes!

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?

No

Thanks in advance!!!

[Rex914]

Don't shoot me if I'm wrong, but the E18 error doesn't appear often if at all on the newer Canon cameras, especially the later SD series cameras. That doesn't make it impossible to receive this error though!

[kenm]

Originally Posted by Rex914

Don't shoot me if I'm wrong, but the E18 error doesn't appear often if at all on the newer Canon cameras, especially the later SD series cameras. That doesn't make it impossible to receive this error though!

E18 errors have already appeared with the newer cameras as can be seen in the large thread about the E18 problem in the Canon forum. The pattern of the E18 error on older cameras seems to be that it usually appears after using the camera for 9 months or more. So we won't really know if Canon has fixed this design problem or not in the newer cameras for another 6-12 months.

Ken

[wave]

Originally Posted by kenm

E18 errors have already appeared with the newer cameras as can be seen in the large thread about the E18 problem in the Canon forum. The pattern of the E18 error on older cameras seems to be that it usually appears after using the camera for 9 months or more. So we won't really know if Canon has fixed this design problem or not in the newer cameras for another 6-12 months.

Ken

Then I think I should go for the Fuji F10. After seeing a few photos, it seems the best one

[kenm]

Originally Posted by wave

Then I think I should go for the Fuji F10. After seeing a few photos, it seems the best one

I've narrowed my choices down to an F10 or a new Panasonic FX9. I'll wait until the latter comes out and then make a decision.