Travel - The Panasonic TZ range is the best compact travel camera money can buy. A beautiful 10x optical zoom starting at 28mm wide angle with very little distortion and a good strong build quality make this the one for holidays. You can capture almost everything you'll come across and it's high definition video is amazing as well... Infact if you don't mind the size, this is the best camera for almost everyone. The TZ4 (TZ11) is 8mp and has a 2.5 inch screen, the TZ5 (TZ15) is 9mp and has a lovely 3 inch screen, image quality from the two is so similar it's down to how much you want the larger screen (and your budget of course)*the lens on the TZ1 was a different design making it a camera to avoid, it's the newer versions to look for (TZ2/3/4/5(11/15))
Under Water Camera - The Olympus MJU 1030sw - this is the first digital camera that most snorklers can't break by diving down too far (without the help of a housing). I consider myself a very good snorkeler and I know I can barely make it down 10 meters without fear of drowing on the way back up. It's also shock proof and crush resistant, it has a (small) 10mp sensor and a 28mm wide angle lens, it is made of metal so don't let go of it while snorkeling because it will plummet to the ocean floor (Underwater housing also available for SCUBA diving). Also great for construction sites, tow truck drivers and snorkeling realestate agents.
*also see Fuji F100fd below
Macro Studio Work - Ricoh GX100. It's combination of a great Macro lens, flash hot shoe and manual exposure controls make it the best compact camera for photographing things like jewelery. The biggest advantage is that you won't need to spend a fortune on studio lighting because at f8 depth of field is huge. An SLR with a dedicated macro lens would need to be stopped down to about f32/f40, maybe even f64, requiring lights that are 3 to 5 times more powerful and many times more expensive to get the same depth of field - you can do with 2 cheap flash units off ebay what would otherwise require expensive studio lights to achieve.
Low Light - Fuji F100fd. Apart from also being the best compact point and shoot camera it also takes the cake for the best low light camera, it's noise levels are far superior to any other compact camera not to mention the detail it's capable of capturing. It can also take a natural light photo followed directly by one with the flash. A good wide 28mm, 5x zoom lens tops it off and it's ability to balance natural light with flash is unsurpassed. Combine it with the underwater housing and you have the best underwater compact camera (although with the housing it isn't really compact anymore).
