I might have been one of those 'slashing' canon but I was referring to their latest releases not making any real advance for underwater
As far as compact cameras with no interchangeable lens Canon make some fine models like the S90/95/100 all 1/1.7" sensor size
Recently Sony has presented a 1" sensor compact and this is definitely a step forward and still does not require to change lenses, canon will eventually release something like that hopefully
There is a quality improvement in the images as you increase the sensor size but in terms of compact the units at 1/1.7" produce excellent results already your camera will perform worse than those compacts with low light and have more noise because the sensor is smaller but still ok to get going and taking some pictures
As far as compact cameras with no interchangeable lens Canon make some fine models like the S90/95/100 all 1/1.7" sensor size
Recently Sony has presented a 1" sensor compact and this is definitely a step forward and still does not require to change lenses, canon will eventually release something like that hopefully
There is a quality improvement in the images as you increase the sensor size but in terms of compact the units at 1/1.7" produce excellent results already your camera will perform worse than those compacts with low light and have more noise because the sensor is smaller but still ok to get going and taking some pictures