I hate to say it, but has he looked at the Sticky for ideas?
Right now if he wants one of the best compact systems, especially for macro but it's no slouch for other things, the Canon G9 is a top pick. But it's bulky and pricier than some other options.
For great all-rounders, the Canon A series is the way to go. There are some at every price point and with a variety of features to suit a whole range of needs (like 2AAs or4AAs, oval ports, round ports, Ikelite housing as well as Canon housings, some have a RAW hack available etc). Bang for buck, these are tops.
Fuji has a couple of nice offerings, too, but they tend to be a tad older and harder to find. Ditto with Olympus - the venerable 5050, of course, but also the 350. Both can be difficult to obtain at a low price and both are older generation models, which bothers some people. Neither Fuji or Olympus have released anything lately that rocks for underwater, unfortunately. Oly's SW range is great for a rugged, waterproof take anywhere camera, but it has focus issues, is dead slow, is terrible at higher ISOs... In some conditions it's a good choice. Just depends what your friend wants out of it.
There is still no one perfect solution out there but there are a ton of options so once your friend knows what is most important to him, he should be able to narrow it down to a top three or so and go from there.
This should be good. Let's hope some of the great camera shops here in the US join in as well. Where is H2O Photo Pros and the others?
