if you like to shot natural light & low light photos, i highly recommend fuji F11. in fact i plan to buy one myself. if you read many forums you'll notice ppl praise it. it's a compact cam with very sensitive sensor which means the ISO can go as high as ISO1600. but if like to shoot mostly outdoor then you might wanna check out canon A610/620. consider this : most compact cams from reputable brands are capable of taking good outdoor, bright light but the real challenge is dark or low light photos (not still objects). that's why i'm getting the F11 . my 3 yr old sony PnS already start to fail to power on maybe she realise i'm getting new one

that's right, the LCD on the A610/620 can be twisted. actually it is helpful to have twisted LCD when you wanna take photos/movies from different angle.
btw the fuji F11 should be < 1.5k. try not to buy cam because of the brand but buy it because of it's capability & the features. personally i prefer canon & sony myself but having read camera forums i found out what an amazing cam the fuji F11 is, although i don't prefer to use xD card. the canon A620 was my first choice too before i found out about F11.