One of the unwanted souvenirs I returned with from Taiwan was a broken digital camera. My beloved Canon IXY Digital 50 that I bought in Japan (known as the Canon Powershot SD300 here) dropped just one foot onto tile floor in a moment of excitement over stinky tofu. The LCD promptly went all white with some weird blacked-out areas, but the camera still could take pictures and movies. But without the LCD, you can't preview your pictures after you take them, and you can't change settings. To fix it would have cost 3600 NTD (about $112 USD). It mostly doesn't make sense to fix electronics nowadays ...

I headed to Best Buy only because I had been given a Best Buy gift card, as that would help offset some of the costs in getting a new point 'n shoot. My choices came down to the Fujifilm Z3 and the Canon Powershot SD600. Eric Cheng previously made a similar comparison between the Fujifilm Z1 and the Canon Powershot SD400, which are predecessors of the ones I was looking at today.

Things I Care About	Fujifilm Z3	Canon Powershot SD600
Color	PINK!!!! AIEEE!!! (exclusive to Best Buy, actually) :)	Silver :|
Design	Totally stylin' :)	Nice, but the Z3 is still nicer :|
Viewfinder	LCD viewfinder only :|	Both optical and LCD viewfinder :)
Brand Loyalty	My first love (camera-wise) was a Fuji :)	I've had great experiences with Canon :)
Accessory Re-purchase	Would have to buy all new accessories (xD picture cards, which ppl report problems with, and new Li-ion batteries) :( (though I'd probably be able to recoup some costs by eBaying some of the old stuff off)	Could re-use all my old SD cards and batteries :)
Fast Startup Time?	Yes! :)	Yes! :)
Ability to Take Pics in Low Light Sans Flash	up to ISO 1600!! :))	up to ISO 800! :)
Movies with Sound?	Yes! :)	Yes! :)
Battery Charging	The battery has to be charged in the camera sitting in the cradle, meaning that there would be times when I wouldn't be able to take pics if I wanted to! :(	Battery has separate charger :)
Continuous Drive Mode (aka Holding down the Button and Having the Camera Keep Taking Pics)	Super slow :( I think it's way slower than advertised!	Reliably fast :)
User Friendliness	Annoying menu interface :(	A menu interface that I'm used to and is relatively easy to navigate through :)
Price (Best Buy, 12/03/06)	$200 :) (lower if you do a pricematch with BestBuy.com)	$250 :| (lower if you do a pricematch with BestBuy.com)
Chances of Finger Blocking Lens	VERY HIGH :(	Very low :)
Final Impulse Buy Excuses	But but but it's PINK! AND SO STYLIN!! And a portion of the proceeds goes to the National Breast Cancer Foundation!!! :)))))	It's reliable! :)

[ dpreview's side-by-side of these cameras ]

Well I took the [PINK!!!!!] Fuji home and took one look at it and had to take it back.

The dealbreaker: there was no tripod socket mount hole thingy. Everyone knows that I'm a dork and I carry my mini-tripod around at all times! :P

So, I went back and exchanged it for the Canon SD600. Function wins again in the end.

The Fujifilm Z3 press release on DPReview states that this is a camera marketed towards ladies (which might explain why the lens is placed all the way to one side - maybe women like to take pics one-handed, and with long nails?). Man, I nearly went for it merely based on its awesome pinkness ... aiyaa ...

Did you know that at BestBuy.com, you can actually shop for cameras BY COLOR? Hahahahah!

... One of my fondest memories of my Canon IXY Digital 50 was while purchasing it in Japan. You can bargain with the employees at the department stores there. That's where Hiroko said to T, "Go find us the employee who looks mentally weakest so we can bargain more easily." She was not satisfied with what T brought back, but it was still okay :)