Thanks everyone for taking the time to share your thoughts, I am now following up on your suggestion and have to tell you I know now a lot more than I did two weeks ago.
Canon G-series (currently G12) and the Nikon P7000.
The important thing to note here, though is that these viewfinders are NOT (to my knowledge) TTL viewfinders, which basically means they’re little more than a rectangular hole through the camera body. If you prefer viewfinders and cant stand using the LCD then I guess that works, but for me, unless the viewfinder is TTL (whether optical via pentaprism or pentamirror, or an EVF), I’d just as soon use the LCD.
That said, both of those models are exceptional compacts. 
I have a G9, but I still use the LCD most of the time to compose photos.
For under $300, Canon has recently come out with a competitor to the Pentax Optio series…
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0902/09021805canond10.asp
Its called the PowerShot D10, and like the Optio it is waterproof, shock and cold resistant.
I have an Optio and I do like it.
For under $300, Canon has recently come out with a competitor to the Pentax Optio series…
If by ‘recently’ you mean 'summer 2009, then sure. 
Still a good little camera though, even if it does look a bit like a toy.
Is it that old?? I had just seen an ad online or in a magazine this past week, so I assumed it just came out. Sorry, my bad!
Here comes the monkey wrench into the works. You have heard a lot about Canon and a little about the rest. IMHO Canon is over priced. Their performance is only marginally better than their competitors and sometimes even worse. Doing comparisons now is tough to do because the main competitor of Canon is Pentax and they are no longer sold in stores. They are on line. They are doing pretty darned good at it too but when your cameras are darned near bullet proof you will do well.
When you look at these cameras you need to be looking at specs. To me the two biggest specs are optical zoom, not digital zoom as it is just a digital manipulation of the pixels not a true zoom, and mega pixels compared to sensor size. Too many mega pixels on the sensor will cause pixel crowding trowing quality of the photo out the window. Don’t get sucked into the pixel wars. Do get the highest optical zoom you can afford. Unless you are going to do studio or art gallery work with the camera then 8-15 MEGA Pixels and a 5x or higher optical zoom will work nicely for you. If you are doing serious studio or gallery work then you want the Pentax digital 645 format but that will set you back about 10 grand.
Here is my next purchase:
http://www.pentaxwebstore.com/detail/PTX+16941
You may want to look at a Pentax X90 or a used X70:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030204pentax70superzoom.asp
review of the super zooms:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q110superzoomgroup/
If you do buy a Pentax and don’t like it you won’t have any problems getting your money back for it by selling it on line. Pretty certain that what ever brand you pick you will be happy with it.
the main competitor of Canon is Pentax and they are no longer sold in stores
Hmmm…among cameras in general, I’d say Nikon is a bigger chunk of the market than Pentax, but within waterproof compacts, I’d put Canon at a distant 4th, behind Olympus, Pentax, and Panasonic (not necessarily in that order).
Either way, this last post by nighthawk is full of good information, especially about crowded sensors (which most people don’t consider) and about forgetting digital zoom and focusing only on optical zoom. Simply put, digital zoom simply crops your existing picture, something you can easily do on the computer, on your own, with any software.
Is it that old?? I had just seen an ad online or in a magazine this past week, so I assumed it just came out. Sorry, my bad!
Check the date at the very link you shared.
night, that WG-1 seems pretty nice, but it seems that almost all the major players in waterproof compacts are just reinventing the wheel at this point. I won’t be looking to replace my WS80 until they put out a waterproof compact with PASM, 10X or better zoom, large sensor, or especially good, fast glass in it. Of those, I think the large sensor is the most likely to happen soon, with the advent of the ILC as well as new lines of large sensor compacts like the Fuji X100, which i’d also love to own.