I have a 2005 model Canon Elph, and it is the reason I swear by Canon.
In 2006 I took it to Ecuador where it was exposed to just about every climate that shockingly diverse nation has to offer (desert islands, high altitude grasslands, mangroves, tropical rainforest, cloud forests, open ocean...). It was dropped and abused without remorse. In 2007, I took it to Alaska, where I worked in a cave in a coastal temperate rain forest. I dropped it down more than one crevasse. It developed a tiny grinding noise when zooming - not sure if this is dirt or corrosion in the mechanics, but it still worked perfect so I didn't worry about it.
In 2008, I bought a Panasonic Lumix of the FZ series... and headed off to Australia. Both cameras went to the beach, swamps, rainforests, and dry forests, as well as various boating adventures. By the time I got home, the Lumix wasn't worth using anymore: won't take photos in low light (and images are noisy even at low ISO) and has a spot on the sensor. The Canon? Now takes better pictures than the Lumix.

Sadly, after additional travels and abuse, the switch is going bad on my Elph. It's difficult to switch to "camera" setting. If you can get it there, the little beast still takes great images... and at low light, it's better than my new Canon XSi dSLR (which is mostly the fault of cheap zoom lenses. I haven't been able to convince my dad that a high-quality prime is worth its weight in gold... and I sure don't have the money to buy one myself!).