Well I ended up with the Nikon Coolpix SD570, on sale at Best Buy for $100. I also got the 1-yr if I break it they replace it plan for $20...I'm good at ruining cameras in caves (getting mud into the lens usually), so it'll be good, if that happens (or if I drop it, crush it, bang it on a rock, jam a button....etc etc) I get a new one no problem haha.
I think it did a nice job!
With flash, in an area there wasn't a fog issue
Without flash in an area the stuff in the air was giving issues, just holding it steady with my arms "tripod" on my chest lit with my helmet light only
Another simply holding it steady, my light and Pete's light as sources, no flash
I was impressed with the anti-shake features - I'm good at tripoding my arms against me steadily but not *that* good, but apparently combined with the anti-shake on the camera was enough for clear photos without any flash!
I also had another idea....at a concert where there was smoke machines, I noticed all the photographers there had what looked like KimWipes (sorry, science person here! uh...white tissue like things) covering their flashes...I'm wondering, does this work by diffusing the light so you don't get so much particle glare? I'm tempted to snatch some KimWipes from work and tape them over the flash on my camera!