ur sure u want an ixus? it has an aperture of only 2.8 or something like that, smaller aperture would be better concerning dof. don't know what kind of look you wanna achieve though. you should take a deep look @ the list of supported cameras, then take a look at what the independent reviews have to say about them, then take a look @ amazon or ebay to see which ones you can afford.
we arent a photography forum here, really, so we can not make reccomendations in regards to "sharpness" or the like.