Fujifilm FinePix F810

I bought this camera as an emergency after breaking my old carry anywhere canon s70. I didn't read any reviews - just needed a pocketable semi decent brand compact to drop into my pocket.
After now using it for about three years its been a revelation. Start up & response times are superb, images are great up to A3 - I've done pretty well in club comps against Nikon D200's, Canon 20D's etc. OK I would never attempt to compare the "technical quality" of a P & S against any DSLR but the combination of actually being able to always have the camera with you and pretty decent optics / sensor is great. The body is covered in buttons that appear a bit gimmicky at first but after a while you realise they're a godsend and very cleverly designed. Whoever thought out this cameras ergonomics knew what they were doing. For example theres a button for "film settings" covering speed, tonality and image size. Theres another button for "drive modes" covering AE bracketing, continuous shooting modes (including a brilliant "last four" mode). After a short while you realise that accessing the important stuff is second nature. ISO400 is ok - once the shots have been carefully sorted with Noise Ninja they're pretty decent. Like most small sensor cameras 800ISO should be avoided (unless, ironically you've got a Fuji f30/31/etc)
I've been toying with a more modern compact but once I've handled them its pretty clear that the 810 can still hold its own esoecially when it comes to responsiveness and flexibility.
The lense covers a pretty useful range also being the equivalent of around 32 - 128mm in 35mm terms - not quite a true "wideangle" but as near as dammit.
These things can be picked up for bargain prices now and make a great investment.

speed
flexibility
lense range
image quality at super CCD 12MP setting is beter than straight 6MP setting interpolated up in CS2 - don't ask me why
build quality & feel (yes, I know it shouldn't make a difference but to me it always does) although plkease see comments below

despite the great "feel" to this camera my gripes are all related to build quality;
- the silver surfaces scratch like crazy - it pretty quickly looks worn
- the flash on mine keeps getting trapped under the adjacent body panel - a real faff until you suss out how to release it quickly (its all about how you hold the camera & press the flash release button)
- the lense on mine has locked on start up a couple of times - this has been because the lense has been stopped from extending properly and has become disengaged. I quickly sussed out how to re-engage it although I'm amazed I havent bust the camera doing this
- silver finish - yuck - looks like a real beginners camera although the images and feature set are definitely for the more demanding phgotographer - still at least that might act as a deterrent for anyone hoping to steal a "decent" looking camera

canon G2 & G4
minolta A1 & A2
canon A80
Olympus 8080 & E10

canon D60, 10D, 20D, 1D
Fuji S1 pro
Minolta D5, D7

not needed