Attention Digital camera buffs!

[NeilI]

I'm looking at getting a digital camera for my birthday in a month or so.

I have rounded it down to 3 (maybe 5) models and am looking for some help in choosing.
The shortlist is;

Pentax Optio S4
Pros
Teeny teeny tiny!
4 Mega pixels
Tiny!
Feature packed for its size
Cons
Short battery life
Soft images, especially round the corners

(Casio) Exilim Z4
Pros
Small and slim
Long battery life
Very good picture quality
Nice LCD
Cons
No movie capture
Relatively less features than others

And then the Canon Ixus i
Pros
Tiny
Excellent picture quality
3minute videos
Top build quality and feel
Cons
No optical viewfinder
No optical zoom
Dodgy flash/redeye
Ixus IIs or the Ixus 430
The last two are new ish and I can't find many reviews for them. I'd probably discount the Ixus 430 as I don't really need 4.3MP, which is the only benefiot I can see over the Ixus IIs.

So, can anyone provide any more guidance???
I'll be using it for general use as I'm no David Bailey. So I don't need any 'uber' features.
Currently I'mn leaning toward the Optio S4 as it is soooo tiny. And a poncy smug rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish in my uni class in enthusing about the Optio S he bought recently. But the S4 is better . But the reports of 'soft' images worry me. My current (aged) camera is a Casio QV-2000UX which was criticised for images being too sharp. So I don't want to go to the other end of the scale.

Help! And thanks.

[overfloe]

ooh tough one.. been reading reviews they seem to prefer the pentax optio.. have a look at steve's digicam review, it's got a huge list of camera reviews.

[NeilI]

ooh tough one.. been reading reviews they seem to prefer the pentax optio.. have a look at steve's digicam review, it's got a huge list of camera reviews.

Cheers mate. Is Steve's thing a website or a section here on Hexus??

Edit: Google is my friend.....