yea for point and shoot, canon's ixus lines are pretty good.
nice size, and decent quality.
vivid + low sharpening = canon
washed out colors + high sharpening = sony
nikon is excellant in taking night shots, and closeups...
olympus is good for taking snapshots of people.. best skintone, id say.
if you are looking for something more than just a simple point and shoot cam, but dont wanna pay the price of a full digital slr, maybe you should look into canon's G6.
hope this helps