New camera?

It's pretty much official... My A70 is on the verge of dying. It can't even take a proper picture. Instead, you get really weird purplish hazes across the picture. I can't even describe what it looks like. Needless to say, it's time to get a new camera... This little fella has served me very very well for the last few years. We've shared some awesome times and taken some cool photos, and I'll be more than a little sad to see it go.

So what's next? I'm thinking, I want something small and slim that I can stick in my pocket, and yet have the capability of doing long exposures (for night shoots). My top choices right now are

Canon SD550/SD500

Casio EX-Z750

A slight edge goes to the EX-Z750 because as dpreview.com puts it,

In fact I'm going to stick my neck out here and - even with the underpowered flash - put my money on the Casio EX-Z750 as the best ultra-compact 7 megapixel on the market today for the serious photographer

DCRP also throws in their 0.02...

A lot of people are trying to choose between the Z750 and the Canon SD500, and here are some things to consider. For an easy point-and-shoot camera that takes great pictures right out of the box, the SD500 is probably the best choice. If you want manual controls and the ability to tweak camera settings, choose the Z750. For low light shooting I preferred the SD500 due to its LCD that "gains up" in those conditions. The SD500 had a more powerful flash as well, though the Z750's Flash Assist feature makes up for its weaker flash. If battery life is paramount then the Z750 wins by a large margin. In terms of continuous shooting performance the SD500 wins easily, though it has no "fast shutter speed" or shutter priority mode like the Z750 does. Regardless of which of the two cameras you end up with, both are good choices.

So I guess it boils down to what do I want in my next digital camera? Offhand, these criteria come to mind:

Ability to set flash, aperture + shutter speed manually (winner: Casio)

Good image quality (winner by a small margin: Canon)

Good battery life (winner: Casio)

Ultra compact form factor (draw)

Time-unlimited movie (winner: Canon)

Which will I pick? Casio is edging Canon at the moment, but I don't know for sure yet... :)