Also, specifically for hiking, where weight matters, you might choose to go for smaller and lighter, versus having every feature known to man. The Canon S230 might be attractive to you because it's got a tough steel case and it's tiny enough to fit into a pocket. At the teeny-tiny end, you get the Casio Exilim. It's a cruddy fixed-focus lens, but it's so insanely tiny (half the weight of the Canon S230) that you might find that worth the trade-off.