i have a canon s40, besides it's a 4M pixel, everything is pretty much the same as s30. it is an excellent camara. the build quialty and feel are very good. the image quality is excellent compare to other compact size camara. one thing i don't like: you have to take out battery and charge it everytime. a bit annoying, i think.

for your price point, i think fujifilm f601 is also an excellent camara. actually i like it better than s40/s30. but it wasn't available when i bought s40.

sony p5's image quality is not as good as canon s30. but it has mpeg EX. and p5 is slightly lighter and smaller than s30, if size and weight is more important to you.