Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I own a Nikon N6006 SLR and set out to buy a point-and-shoot for convenience. I bought both a Minox CD 140 and an Olympus Stylus Zoom 140 QD. I shot a roll of film with all three at once, then blinded sorted the the match sets of three pictures of each image based on which were best. My findings: 1. The Nikon SLR was not consistently the best. In fact, the difference between the pictures from the SLR and the two point and shoots was remarkably smaller than I expected. 2. The Minox had somewhat better color, focusing, and contrast than did the Olympus. The difference, however, was slight. 3. The Olmpus was better designed than the Minox. The Olympus fit better in the hand, the clamshell cover gave more protection, it had a greater zoom range, the viewfinder was slightly larger and set back from the camera body (so your nose doesn't bump the camera as much), and the diopter adjustment was nice. On the plus side for the Minox, the placement of the Minox zoom buttons was more comfortable for me than than the Olympus ones, and the Minox turned on and off markedly faster than the Olympus. Also, the Minox case was more practical. Both point and shoot cameras would be excellent options. Get the Minox if picture quality is paramount; get the Olympus if you want more features and better comfort in your hands.