Oh yes, most Lumixes are great, but they are not the cheapest.
You certainly know about sites like dpreview.com or steves-digicams.com. The first one has a nice feature search function.
My preferences would be, regarding your specifications:
a) Go for wide-angle. It should be at least 35mm, 28mm focal length would be better (based on 35mm film, as the chips are smaller you always have to calculate the value if using the real values). You always can zoom in, but you can’t that easily combine multiple images.
b) 6-7 Megapixel. In fact, more megapixel in a compact camera make the image worse. Not better, but not even the same quality, but worse. The chips are that small, the lenses are that small, they just can’t produce more pixels. Trying to do so needs “tricks” like sharpening software that produces muddy images.
c) Go for manual settings (aperture, shutter time; white-balance is pretty much standard). You need predictible results, you can only get them if you know what you want and can tell this to the camera.
d) Typically you can’t do much wrong with the “big” names, but they are producing different cameras for different segments.
The combination of wide-angle and manual settings is an expensive one in the compact segment. In fact, I am searching for such just at the moment.
I guess something like the Canon A570IS will serve your needs. Or maybe (a little cheaper, no plastic feeling) the Samsung S850 (arg, manual controls like no other in that price segment - and then they add childish effects menus…). The Ricoh Caplio G5 even is nice (wide angle, 28mm), but has no manual possibilities. Panasonic Lumix LX2 is nice (and expensive)… and there are so much other very fine cameras.
