i will go for canon... i have been using canon PnS for past 5 years and satisfy with it...
or sony also not bad... but samsung just entered this market so not very appealing
concern bout the batt life? it uses battery pack or normal AA batt?
if battery pack just buy another 3rd party battery pack... very cheap only...
i will go for pana anytime... the ads is just marketting gimmick to trap u consumers... and sometimes i use olympus PnS, compared to my canon PnS, the olympus lose hands down... the noise control sucks to the bottom
canon PnS have good review most of the time... u wont regret with it...
or u can go to the shop to test the range which fall within ur budget...
the A480 dun have image stabiliser so be steady holding with ur hand when taking pics...
and why dun use expensive memory storage card?
a better SD card will have better transfer rate, sometimes conserve battery too and data will not corrupt easily compared to cheap SD card... buy a good 1 so u will not lost u precious moment after ur vacation