Thanks for all the feedback.
I read some plaudits for the Canon G9 and G10 on the other thread. Any thoughts on those, or have they already been surpassed?
Also on the earlier thread Joe ID'd this as his piece:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06091403_canon_sd800is.asp
Gary, good luck w/ your research on the cams. That dpreview site is wonderful and that one above is what got me to buy the Canon SD800is a few years back. And I've not upgraded since, with over 20,000 photos taken now.
If I may add a couple of other comments:
If a camera can't be made quiet, it would not interest me. I don't want to have any chance of disturbing those around me (perhaps more than already!) by having a cam make clicking noises, etc. My Canon is really quiet, except for powering it on/off and the lens extension noise. But I'm confident it can only be heard from within maybe 5 feet.
Buy a big, say 4GB card, and one that is 'fast'. They are cheap. And even with my 7 megapixel cam where I shoot at the highest resolution possible, I think the card holds 3000 pics. So there is really no way, unless you make a super long golf trip, to fill it up before downloading to your main computer.
I prefer shooting in 16x9 mode, which most decent cams have as a setting. I think most pics on a golf course look better this way; there is just more going on in my mind horizontally rather than vertically. Also, tv monitors make for a very nice display for the photos and if the pics are shot in 16x9, no cropping or stretching or anything is needed to display them on the tv.
Finally, once you have a handful of photos you'll find staying organized is a challenge. For me, I'm a huge fan of iPhoto, a free program if you purchase a Mac. It organizes my 20k+ pics, but also very nicely allows you to adjust your photos (crop, tilt, exposure, etc) as well. A real good photographer I know, a Photoshop expert, prefers iPhoto for simple tweaks of his pics.
P.S. I really like Galerie as the program to interface with iPhoto that easily builds nifty albums, which allow commentary to be added to each pic. And Galerie is free. But, unfortunately, there is not a PC version of it.
You can check out many of my photo albums at one of two places:
1. Joe Logan's MyPhillyGolf.com at this direct link: http://www.myphillygolf.com/gallery.asp
2. Frank Pont's GolfArchitecturePictures.com
Edit: Dan Moore's recent post is excellent. At some point I will get another camera, a much better one, to supplement my Canon 800is. But for my current needs, this old Canon is small and durable and easy to get in and out of my pocket, and takes really good pics compared to just about all other point and shoot cams out there.