I had the same problems you've got now. I spent months trying to figure out the best option for me. In the end I went for a Canon G9. A great camera (if a little big for a compact) that lets you shot pics fully manual if you want. You can mess about with the ISO, f stop etc to your hearts content. Of course it has fully auto aswell. A good zoom length to but you can also buy convertor lenses aswell to double the zoom length and another one to bring the focal length to 28mm. Its very well built aswell. I got mine from ebay, which seemed to average about £260, or on the high street for I think £320.
Have a look at the forums on dpreview.
