wide angle compact

Hi

I'm looking for a wide angle (28mm equiv. or 24 if possible) compact with a
decent flash and good manual control. Zoom range is not critical although x
3 optical would be nice. 5mb or above would be best and it needs to be good
and small .

Any ideas and experience would be much appreciated.

Thanks

--
Tobit

Hi

I have Canon S70, which is 28-to (I think) 92 (3.2X or so), and it's
7.1 mp ... not all that cheap (around $380), but you could probably get
it used. The S50, discontinued, is pretty much identical at 5mp -- I
had that, but dropped it. Of course the semi-new S80 has the same lens,
or close to it, and 8mp, but no RAW, which is a deal-breaker for me. It
does have an add-on wide angle that brings it to 18 or so, but the
whole S80 thing with the extra lens would cost $600. I have looked at
the Nikon 8400, not too compact, which has a 24 to about 100, 8mp, and
it also has an optional auxiliary wide-angle, and the Olympus 7070,
which starts at 27 and is discontinued but probably still available.
What I really want is an Olympus E500 SLR with their 8-16 mm lens, but
that's $600 for the camera and $1700+ for the lens. Sigh.
Bill Fisher

TC wrote:
Hi

I'm looking for a wide angle (28mm equiv. or 24 if possible) compact with a
decent flash and good manual control. Zoom range is not critical although x
3 optical would be nice. 5mb or above would be best and it needs to be good
and small .

Any ideas and experience would be much appreciated.

Thanks

--
Tobit

Thanks for this Bill (and all the other responses)

I am very tempted by the S70, as it seems almost identical to the S80 and
1/2 the price (well 2/3 perhaps !). Nice and compact even compared to the
Coolpix 8400. This is intended to be an always with me pocket camera, rather
than the main workhorse.

How do you find the processing and display time for the S70. My current
Olympus E10 (about 4 years old) takes forever between shots. Also is the
flash good enough for internal building scenes ?

--
Tobit