I agree, the quality of pixels matters (to me) more than the resolution or the size of the sensor. A bigger sensor might but won't necessarily produce better pixels. I think this is one area that will be highly competitive in the next few years, producing better quality pixels than the competition, even at higher ISO, on a small sensor. It's what the D300 appears to do in a significant way.

By comparison, I keep reminding myself how much rapid change there has been to computer CPU's over the years, Moore's law.

My first digital camera was a Kodak DC120 "brick" and that thing was horribly noisy and less than 1/3 of 1 MP! That was only about 8 years ago.

I have briefly owned and sold many, many compact cameras looking for one that suits me and so far my Canon SD700 IS wins in my book.  The Panasonics have way too much noise for my tastes, the Fuji F20/30 was great in low light but I was not happy with daylight shots or the media card.  I really liked my Sony P150 and can't remember why I sold it... possibly to get something smaller.    The Canon A620 was great as well but too big for my purse.  The Canon A710 IS was great good too but I hated the long delay between flash pics.  It was also a bit big for my purse. (Seeing a trend here?)  Anyway, I now own a Canon SD700 IS that I bought used from B&H that I wouldn't part with for twice what I paid.  It's certainly no DSLR but it's a nice "purse" camera when I can't carry around my 5D.  Sure, it's an older model but it has IS, is small, has great image quality and it got a great review at DPReview.com. (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canonsd700is/)  I would love to have one of these with the 28mm wide angle lens but the two newer canon models with this feature (SD800 and SD870) are mired in the Digic3 over-processed-by-noise-reduction problem on anything over ISO200.  Of course, this is just my opinion.  Many who own these newer models disagree with me on the image quality, from what I read in the DPReview forums, but by my eyes I've got the better camera.    I've had a few shots accepted using it so it can't be all bad.

Now if I were looking for something a bit bigger than this one I'd probably go for the G9, especially to have RAW.  It's a bit too big for my purse though.  Maybe one day someone will make my dream camera.  Good luck in your search!

The Sigma DP1 looks interesting but I don't think it is selling yet.

http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/news/sigma_dp1.htm

I would love to see some sample images of the Sigma DP1 but I am unable to locate any. Can you post the link if you find one. (probably not in my budget anyways)

read_my_rights - I look forward to hearing how the G9 did

pixelbrat - You need to get a bigger purse!      Good review BTW

I think the Sgma DPI will have the same sensor as the SD14.  I was impressed by the full size images from that.  I think has a fixed focal length wide angle lens though, so that rules it out for me.

It also uses AA's, which is sometimes very convenient.

It is essential in a P&S for me.  I wouldn't have been pleased to find myself out of batteries in the middle of the Inca Trail. 

And it saved me today, I took my P&S to my office to photograph our president, and when I was testing exposure settings I found batteries were gone, so I ran back to my office room and grabbed a pack of alkaline batteries. 

Regards,
Adelaide