Don't get me started on what I perceive to be the poor state of the digital compact market...I could be here for a good while moaning about the shameless marketting of useless gimmicks and the pointless and never-ending megapixel race, design of course to squeeze every last penny out of the consumer without much thought to picture qualtiy...ok...that's enough of that!

To the point... I haven't bought a digital compact for several years, the last being a 5MP Ixus. Am in the process of planning a trip to New York early next year and am thinking I don't really want to take my 40D out there. So I'm looking at some options for a suitable compact.

What's good these days?

RAW - Nice but not essential.
10MP - About that I reckon
Decent wide end is more important to me than extreme length.
Noise control - Needs to be good up to ISO400. Passable at ISO800.
Manual controls - Tend to shoot on Av with my DSLR, so a camera that can give some control over DoF would be nice.
Metering - Clever and consistent out the box would be nice.

Budget around Ł250....

What do ya reckon?