I went on a tear a while back, accumulating point and shoots, and ended up with a Yashica T4 Super, an Olympus Stylus, a Rollei Prego 90, Olympus XA, Contax TVS, a Leica Mini-Zoom and a Leica Minilux, along with an assortment of lessor known 1980s/90s p&s cameras (I'm not including my little collection of 60s/70s Japanese rangefinders). A few thoughts on some of them:
Yashica T4 Super
It's a nice take-it-everywhere camera with a pretty good meter (I've happily shot E6 on it) and a sharp lens that vignettes noticeably. However, I personally feel it's a little over-rated, particularly at the premium prices it commands. For me, the lens isn't quite there, and the lack of manual controls make it difficult to compensate for some of the camera's deficiencies (i.e., soft corners when wide open).
Olympus XA
Simple, small and compact. It's a fun camera to carry around, although the focusing patch is prone to fade away almost to nothing. I'm not crazy about the lens on it, however. Vignettes like mad wide-open and even stopped down I don't personally find anything particularly special about it. Form factor is brilliant, however. If you get one, you'll shoot it.
Olympic Stylus (mju)
I feel about this much the way I feel about the XA (although I'd recommend the XA over the Stylus): great form factor, fun to shoot (if you want 100% auto), not crazy about the lens. I got mine for $2, so no great loss.
Contax TVS
I love this camera - my favourite p&s. Great feel, great ergonomics. I've been very happy with the short range zoom-lens (primarily for b&w), although I understand that it has its detractors. If you look around and are patient, and aren't looking for "mint," you can get one for a very good price. Briefly had a TVSII (shutter died on it), which was a hair better in terms of handling. That said, I see no need to "trade up." With a filter and a lens hood, it's larger than some of the others; but at least you've got the option to use filters and a lens hood, which is quite unusual for a P&S.
Leica Minilux
I'm torn on this camera. It's fun to look at and hold, but it's noisy to use. It has a good feature set, but a terrible, tiny finder, and it can be awkward to access some of the controls (i.e., 6 or 7 button pushes to turn off the flash!). I've thought about selling it many times. But the lens on it is phenomenal. The electronics may be Japanese (nothing wrong with that), but the lens is definitely Leica. It's been mentioned before it has a very powerful flash. I'd add that the camera seems to balance the flash nicely for daylight fill. I've run into some overexposure problems with the camera, possibly due to the silly 1/500th max shutter speed. There's also the legendary E02 error issue. Still, writing about it makes me want to shoot with it, just to see the results from that lens.
Leica Mini Zoom
A surprising little camera. I've gotten great results on it. The lens is really quite good for a zoom - almost as good as the Contax TVS IMO. Finder and handling are marginally better than the Minilux, which makes it a little more fun to shoot. You can find them for under $100, which is also a plus. The camera is frequently over-looked: I'd almost call it a hidden gem.
Contax T2?
I've thought about selling or trading the Minilux for a Contax T2. I think that might give me the Contax handling (which I love) along with a lens that I've heard is the equal of the Minilux's Summarit 40mm. Anybody here own/tried both?
