Making it too Easy

If you read through my entries about visiting New Mexico, you know that I basically killed my current digital camera because of taking it out to the desert and letting sand get into the lens area.  I've started doing my research on finding a new point and shoot digital camera, and admittedly I am not entirely happy with what I see.

The thing that I loved about my camera (Sony Cybershot DSC-W5) was discovering its full manual mode.  In that mode I had complete control over what I could do with the camera, including the shutter speed and the aperture.  Prior to discovering this mode, I typically used one of the scenes or the fully automatic mode.  The problem with those modes was that when I tried to take pictures of fast action like hockey games, the camera would be so busy trying to get the right light that it would set the shutter speed to be way too slow, resulting in a ton of blurred shots.  It sucks when you take 50 pics, and maybe have 5 of them that are usable.

Anyway, so when I went to look today, it is with dismay that I am finding that most camera manufacturers are dumbing down their point and shoot camera models to the point that they have removed control over things like the aperture and shutter speed.  What I found with nearly every single model was that I could go full-auto, I could pick some scene and it would do its own compensations, or their manual mode allowed me to control the EV value, ISO, white balance, and flash intensity, but no control over the shutter speed or aperture.

I could potentially live with only adjusting the EV value, but it's a pain in the ass to get to the adjustment because they bury it inside the menu.  I really liked being able to press one button and get right to adjusting the aperture and shutter speed.  I certainly needed that when I was taking pictures of the STP concert last month.

So now what do I do from here?  Do I finally take the plunge and get an SLR?  That would be nice, but that's a bit bulky to carry to the Verizon Center every time I want to go to a Caps game.  I would rather stick with a point and shoot if I can.  Does anyone know of a good forum where I can find out from other people about what kind of camera I can get?  Ultimately, if I can't find what I want, perhaps I will just have to hit Ebay or Craigslist for my camera.