I recently purchased a new camera. I wanted some relatively cheap, but flexible and small.
Small is important because no matter how good the camera is, if it is too big to carry around then it is useless. The S100 fits in a shirt pocket.
It also has RAW capability as well as full manual control so when my skills grow, the camera will grow with me.
At $469 (with a 8GB SD card) it is not exactly cheap, but it is good quality. The lens goes down to f/2
