I'm sure there is a mathematical way to lay it out, and it's probably not that hard. But I am super lazy, and I would just get my CAD program to fill the space equally. Let me know if you want me to do it for you.

The old camera was a W80, and before that a W60.  It's been a very bad track record as far as how long these cameras last too.

Really... we've also got a W80 and that has been an excellent camera - no troubles over the year and a half or so that we have had it. "Beach" mode is funny though - everything comes out blue, even sand.

If you can compromise on something between a DSLR and point-and-shoot-compact, I can highly recommend Sony's H-series. I have a H9 (now superseded by H11) and it really is good. Great quality, and you just can't beat the 12x zoom that a larger body gives you. Has an "automatic" mode for point-and-shoot, turn the dial to adjust separately or together the apeture/ISO/shutter/EV. Uses memory stick pro-duo, not sure if that's the type of memory stick you have, or if you have the old memory sticks.

Only problem is there is no remote / external port (that I can find - let me know if anyone knows about it), so I don't think you can trigger the camera in any way besides pushing the button on the camera body.

I always have the same problem - I love building up a robot form factor, but I can never come up with a really good idea to justify it's use.

One thing I think could be useful would be a mapping robot - let it go wild in a room, and when it's done download the data and have a detailed map of the floorplan of the room. Of course there are other robots out there that already do this using an array of sonar sensors but they all only give rough maps. I'm sure something using quadrature and dead reckoning could come up with something better if the problem of accumulating errors could be overcome.