The last one I bought 3 years ago was a minolta & it was just bad all around. P lease give me some advice I recommend anything made by Nikon or Fuji are usually best when it comes to digital cameras.
I've used the Olympus SP500 UZ someone else recommended at a work experience placement a couple of months ago - it eats batteries, can be a bit fiddly..... and the autofocus seems to want to lock onto everything except the item your trying to take a picture of! And it can be a little heavy to carry around.
Personally I use a Fuji Finepix A345 which is pretty good, and slips into my pockets easily.
There's plenty of Camera reviews at this site:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_...
The Nikon Coolpix P4 sounds kinda promising judging just by the first page of the review:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
As does the Fuji Finepix F470 if your looking for compactness:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
If you're looking for something waterproof, the Pentax Optio W10 looks good: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
If you're looking for something more "heavy duty", and not too bothered about lugging something larger around with you.....
Digital SLR's are just out of your price range.
But there's the Olympus SP-320 Zoom (7.1 megapixels) reviewed here: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...
or the 8megapixel SP-350:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_revi...
And the 6Megapixel SP-500UZ mentioned by someone else here:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi... http://www.myproductadvisor.com
i prefer the canon sd600 for my budget
but for yours, you gota alot of money for a great camerA!
GOOD LUCK
THIS SITE HELPS ALOT try olympus sp-500 UZ... its great and you can find in online for about $250... anything olympus is great actually... and don't get sony... you're just buying the brand name.
-tmac Try a model from the Canon Powershot line. I own a Canon, and I am pleased with it. I paid about $350 for it. I also hear good things about Kodak, but I have no experience with them. I recommend you buy from a place like Best Buy, because they have sales people who are able to tell you what you need. Canon PowerShot S1 IS
We have one, got it at Best Buy....an incredible camera!!!
Don't use the zoom too much, enlarge your shot in the camera while viewing or editing them or when you print them on your PC.
We're really happy with ours, it's amazing...
(but the zoom is awesome, and cool to have if you need it:) GET A NIKON COOLPIX 5MP MY STEP-DAUGHTER HAS ONE AND LET ME USE IT. ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10 I GIVE IT 10++++. YOU CAN.T GO WRONG WITH A NIKON I AN A LONG TIME USER AND LOVE NIKON. CHECK OUT AMAZON FOR THE BEST PRICE AROUND 200.00 PLUS S&H first I want to say that you can get a lot more camera for your money by going to a website that offers refurbished cameras with full warrenty such as www.overstock.com
also unless you are planning on creating billboard size photos a 4mpixel camera is ample. kodak makes a very nice camera that you can find there under 300 dollars....
also look at this one http://www.overstock.com/?page=proframe&... it is a fujji 3.2 megapix....for under 150 dollars. takes great 8x10, has great optical zoom(better than digital zoom) The Canon Power Shot A530. The price tag is $200 - $150. It has 5.0 Megapixels, 4x optical zoom, 18 shooting modes and video clips. It has built in speakers. When you buy this camera, it has a free 1.0 GB memory. It works on any os. I have this camera, and i love it. It's like a video camera. Go to CNET.com. They sort camera by price and functionality. I can recommend one but these things change very frequently. You should CNET and click on the camera tab. It let you set search criteria. | 