Thanks Dennis. Those are very good points you make.

I hadn't thought about flash and so on, nor considered the learning curve with different controls and things. However I can't imagine wanting flash and the like given that I have various and assorted DSLRs.

I was originally thinking MX, but two things have made me look elsewhere. (a) I unexpectedly have a spare Canon DSLR body doing pretty much nothing (the 7D which turned out to be repairable) so the notion of having the MX as an emergency spare for outback trips loses its point. And (b) every time I look at the MX range, I keep finding a nice feature I would like if I go up just one model higher, and just one more, and just ... Suddenly I'm looking way over $1000 for a low priority occasional-use tool, so I get an attack of parsimony and decide not to buy one at all!


I spent some time today reading up on the Olympus Tough TG-5 today. Much smaller sensor than I had in mind, no viewfinder at all, dearer than a Canon M3 or M10, but very small and neat, and practically indestructable: you can use it underwater, drop it onto concrete from head-high, store it in the freezer if you wish. http://www.steves-digicams.com/camer...-5-review.html Don't know that I need all that, but interesting. (Possibly they will do a cheaper version without all the extras I don't need, such as wi-fi and GPS.)

I'll keep looking. Last time I bought a compact camera it was a whopping, state-of-the-art 5MP Canon Powershot. That was 2004.