I own the Canon Powershot G2. For a long while, it was the top rated camera in any category at Cnet, and dpreview thought pretty highly of it. It's less expensive than the one you're looking at, but I can't compare anymore because I haven't been looking in months now.

I will say that dollar for dollar, memory sticks seem to be more expensive than CF. I never liked how Sony tried to force their own media on the market, because I do like many of their products, but I wouldn't buy them because of the proprietary format. I can use my CF card in far more places than memory sticks, and the devices that use them almost all accept much larger sizes. For example, whereas memory sticks I believe only go up to 128MB, you can buy 1GB microdrives for most CF card devices.

I just don't see the logic in memory sticks. and realize that you will have to buy more memory. A 5MP camera will take very large pictures, and the camera only comes with a 32MB stick. I'd estimate about 10 shots at most on its highest quality setting.

Here's an idea of what it's like for me. My G2 is a 4MP camera. I have a 256MB CF card for it. At the camera's highest quality setting, I can fit about 140-150 shots on it at once. I'm telling you now, you'll never fit that many on a Sony device at once, and unless you're bringing a laptop on your trip, you'll want to.