What digital camera will give me most mega pixels, highest zoom, best quality pictures for a reasonable price?

clear great zoom with the ability to crop and play with on the printer. for children on the inside and out maybe family pictures as well to even put on the wall. PLEASE HELP!

Consumer Reports reviewed digital cameras in last months issue.

canon powershot elph

Look for optical zoom. You want to get a camera with as much optical zoom as possible. The more zoom capabilities, the better the photo. 10X, 12X are the best ones. You can settle for 6X (Panasonics) or 4X (Canon, Minolta) Sony bought Konika/Minolta camera operations just recently, so you'll soon be getting Minolta qualities blended with Sony capabilities. Then, you'll want to look for megapixels; the more MP, the better (sharper) the image when enlarged. 3.2, 4.0 are relatively bottom dwellers, although they work excellent. 7.0, 8.0 on up are the better cameras. Add MP with Optical zoom and you'll just need to find a price low enough to fit your price range. Remember look for high MP, and high zoom. ex: 8.0 MP, 12X optical zoom, $699. +/-. Its up to you to search (try online). Good luck.

Here is a web with the best cameras

http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_came...

You are describing the Sony DSC-H5 camera for $400-$450. It's a 7 megapixel camera with a 12x zoom and a high quality lens. It's probably the best consumer level camera for all purpose use that you can buy.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/SonyH5/