I've used a whole bunch of P&S cameras that pretty much all gave/give excellent results. As long as you stay away from the hyped trendy instagram ones, you can get them dirt cheap.
$20 can get you a top of the line P&S that was literally $800 when it was released back in the day. Or a much simpler one.
Minolta Freedom Tele ($20) - which is also the Leica AF-C1 ($300!!!)
I've used a whole bunch of P&S cameras that pretty much all gave/give excellent results. As long as you stay away from the hyped trendy instagram ones, you can get them dirt cheap.
$20 can get you a top of the line P&S that was literally $800 when it was released back in the day. Or a much simpler one.
Minolta Freedom Tele ($20) - which is also the Leica AF-C1 ($300!!!)
I made a bet on Olympus XA, XA2 long time ago.
There was some kind of crash test - four long walks (~1000 km each) in hot, dusty and heavy humid conditions. XA, XA2, Minox ML and Nikon FM2 (35/2 and 50/2 pre AI) were on my hands. And the winner is Olympus!
As others have mentioned the Olympus Stylus cameras are great. I bought a new Olympus ∞ Stylus Zoom DLX back in the 1990's to take snowboarding. I still take it snowboarding to this day. It has been through some rough conditions and still works as good as ever.
I've been thinking of buying a high-end point and shoot camera to replace my Contax TVS. I loved that camera and used it for travel with great success.
If you like the camera so much, just get it repaired. I would contact Pierro Pozella in London: https://pppcameras.co.uk/
He is an expert in electronic repairs, and has saved dozens of Contax T-line compact cameras. He knows these cameras very well.
No self-respecting APUG member would balk at setting zone focus, but it's lens is superb if you bother to set it carefully with the distance scale on the underside rather than using the "one person - two people - two trees - one mountain" scale on the top.