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Comparative thoughts on the CF/SD-SDHC cards of value to hear...
SD card in earliest Canon Sureshot - paid a fortune for the 128MB max size the camera took - and then Sony Alpha to fit my bag full of Minolta AF lens followed...
QUESTION: Is there a fixed-lens camera on market today that uses CF cards?
No. None being manufactured anymore. The last one was the Fuji Finepix S9000.
Believe me, I understand where you are coming from. Memory used to be a big investment, it was $1100 CDN for a 1 GB CF when I purchased one in 2002. Because of this, it was important when changing cameras that you could continue using the same cards.
This is no longer the case. Memory has become a cheap commodity and CF reserved for high-end use. As a matter of fact, local electronic stores do not carry CF cards anymore, at least here. We see them in photo stores where they sell the high-end cameras that use them. Devices are also dropping the CF slot, I do not remember the last time I say a laptop with a built-in CF reader. The last good 16GB SDHC cards I bought were $29 CDN and came with a lifetime warranty, so price is not very concerning anymore.
Also, do not forget that Compact Flash is on its last version. CFast or XQD will replace it soon and uses a different faster interface. However, it is great that CF has managed to stay this long without any disruptive upgrades like SD -> SDHC -> SDXC and let's ignore Memory Sticks for this matter!
CF cards were used back then because they offered higher write speeds than smaller memory cards and some even offered then gigantic capacities by utilizing small hard drive inside.
However, these days SD cards rival CF in speed and capacities are already beyond practical. For example, 8GB Class 10 SDHC cards I use in my SDLR hold around 700 raw images per card, or thousands of JPEGs. The limiting factor here is amount of loss if the card gets lost/stolen - 16GB cards are already dirt cheap, but I don't want to go there, because I want to spread the risk.
In other words, SD family cards are fast enough for any compact camera to not be a bottleneck, and the capacity is limited by the amount you are willing to lose at once.
So embrace SD and you'll be happy and fine.
