After quite a period of comparing various compacts, both on specs and also on handling, as well as the requirement that the camera fitted in a handbag (tsk women), I guided my mother to buy a Sony DSC-RX100 a couple of days ago.
We spent ages comparing specs and eventually went to London Camera Exchange in Southampton to compare the contenders 'in the hand' as it were. Definitely worth the time spent to see what you like/don't like about a camera.
This was to replace a Fuji X10, which is a good camera, but is simply too big to be bagged or pocketed.
I've not had much time to play with it yet, but I have shot a high-ISO test. You can see the comparison with the RX100 and the W630 at ISO3200:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t_cowley/tags/isotest/The big selling point of the camera is the large sensor. You can see this compared here:
Although I need to spend some more time playing with the camera it appears to be a very impressive bit of kit. It is not cheap, but it's discrete and the lens is damned fast - F1.8 at the wide end. Combine this with the large sensor and good high ISO performance and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone looking for a high quality compact.
We also checked out the Fuji XF-1 which has a lens mechanism that feels like it's ready to break. From rest turn it slightly anti-clockwise to release it, then pull it out manually, THEN twist clockwise to turn on (and zoom in use).
Also considered was the Lumix LX7, but it was a shade too big and also had a comparatively small sensor.
I was hoping she'd go for the Canon G15, which has a lens that is F1.8-2.8 - one of the fastest out there and also has a viewfinder (she likes having a viewfinder), but it was 150grammes more than the RX100 and also way bigger. It also has probably the best ISO performance - APS-C size sensor.
Probably the biggest thing that seems to contribute to image performance in the camera market today is sensor size - with a bigger sensor 'catching the light' the pixels aren't as tightly packed the images seem to have much better depth and quality.
