Sony WX80 or Canon ELPH500 or Fujifilm XF1 or...?
 

I posted those three names in the title in order to give an idea of the kind of point-and-shoot camera I'm looking for. I would say the Canon EPH340 might also be in the picture, as well as anything else you can think of.

I mainly photograph as a function of wildlife research. I need to be able to take pictures in all lighting conditions, and though I take both close and far shots my current work emphasizes close-up pictures of small animals. To that end, I'm looking for a camera with the following features:

Primary: high image quality, works well in low light, takes good macro pictures

Secondary: durable, decent action photos, takes shots relatively quickly

Would be nice...: a decent zoom (not expecting that with other features), decent battery life

My price range is under $250, though under $200 is preferable.

Any thoughts on the three cameras I mention above, or anything else out there? Really, having a durable camera that can take high quality photos, especially macros in low light, trumps everything else.

One other idea - I've never owned a smartphone before, but to be able to record the pictures on a phone, especially with embedded GPS information, and then directly upload them to a database would be a really helpful feature for my research. If I were to get a smartphone with a decent camera capability, how much would I be losing on picture quality compared to the cameras that I've listed, especially in low light and macro?

this subject has been coming up a lot. i have a samsung galaxy S4 and my daughter has the S5, and neither come close to the image quality of even a smaller sensor digicam except in the best possible light, and even then the best phone camera can't really compete.

you might want to check the pics in this thread
http://forums.steves-digicams.com/wh...hone-cams.html

The best in low light of the cameras you mentioned, will be the Fuji XF1, as it has the largest sensor. But on compacts with larger sensor, the zoom reach is much more limited.
A camera with more zoom and GPS will cost you more. f.i. The Panasonic ZS30 (TZ40) has 20x zoom, is rather fast and has GPS and Wifi, but costs around $350.
Rudi

Thanks Rudi. I was leaning towards the XF1 too...except that I was a little bit worried about a bug that seems to pop up some of the time. If it wasn't for the bug, I probably would have targeted it already. But maybe it is even worth it anyway?

I did consider that Panasonic line earlier. Unfortunately, besides being a bit out of my price range, they appear not to be sold by any dealers where I live (I'm in Asia), and shipping things here is unreliable.