How to pick a good digital camera?

Well, there are a few uses I am looking to use this camera for.
1. concerts, I need something that will be able to take clear pictures without using the flash, and quickly
2. I'm planning a trip to Europe in the fall, and I am worried about charging batteries. My camera now just uses AA. Thoughts?
3. I'd like something small and compact, with a fairly good zoom rate, 3 or 4. And at least 7 mega pixels.
4. I also like to be able to change settings from a button or switch instead of having to do it through a menu on the screen. Sometimes you just don't have that much time to make a setting change.
Thanks! Hope everyone has a great day!

One of the most popular models of digital cameras is the Canon PowerShot G2. It is rated number one out of 100 in Top Sellers in Digital Cameras (http://www.BizRate.com). By shopping around it can be seen that prices range from around $650 to $900. The best buy that could be found was for $644.00 at World Trade Digital (http://www.worldtradedigital.com). The Canon PowerShot G2 received a rating of 4.7 out of 5 (http://www.photographyreview.com). Some strengths included the manual controls, low light, amount of control, a fast lens, swivel LCD, easy use, long lasting battery power, fast picture-processing, and good resolution. Two weaknesses mentioned in the reviews were the lens and the shutter delay.

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the more expensive the better. whatever you pay for a camera thats the quality your going to get.

Get something with long range and an antiblur setting. If you want something nice dont go cheap. the better cameras are more expensive but have higher quality photos.

My camera Is a samsung digimax A7 and I know that you can change setting on the menu screen and also you can switch it with the trun of a nob. it is a 7.0 mega pixel camera.... You can have the flash on or off and pictures seem to turn out nice. Hope this helps

there are two very good ways of picking a digital camera. the first is that most if not aqll cameras have a special ranking method to show you which is the best. This is called price and can normally be found on a label attached to the camera or it's box.

th 2nd method is by closing your eyes, and going eeny meeny miny mo, catch a camera by the toe, if it's crap let it go eeny meeny miny mo, and then reach out and grab one.

Also a really good way to get digital cameras is by finding the one you want and then sticking it up your jumper and running out of the shop ideally to a waiting get-a-way car.

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Cybershot-DSC...
I'm not sure of the settings, but I think that one will get the job done for you.

try to ask if they got a digital camrea with clear art and they'll get one out of there storeg room

Get educated about what's out there. If found a really nice site that has reviews and comments from users.
Go to

dpreview.com

and spend some time getting acquainted as to the different cameras that are out there. Expensive is not necessarily better. Depends on your experience with cameras and desire to learn.

IF IT HAS A GOOD SCREEN AND IT HAS A CHIP AND TAKES PICTURES THERE U GO. Duh!!!

you may want to check this out.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/contro...

but it will depend on your budget. How this helps

well the best way is to get a cam with a high mega pixel. the more mega pixel the clearer the shots. and make sure that cam has a good night vision mode. and a good battery life. the solution for battery charging problems is 2 take a hell load of AA batteries in a bag

At Least 6-7 megapixels with good around 4-6x optical zoom , Digital zoom is crap . Get a Canon . They make gr8 Cameras . my favorite .

look for a camera with at least 7 mega pix
-forget about the zoom rage of 3-4...too much...more zoom a compact camera has worst the pics.

- also for compact cameras look for one with a (small)min zoom range...so close snapshops ...a head or a face will not be cut off....
any canon camera from the powershot range is good...sd 800 is great.

I'm looking for one myself, but I've heard that megapixels aren't everything. They mostly matter if you want to take a large picture and crop it or make large prints. I think one of the most important things you're looking for is speed- it sucks when quick pictures always come out blurry! (Ask me how I know.) So good luck..and please let us know what you eventually decide on! ;)

There may be a conflict between your #1 and #3 requirements, since you can't take clear pictures at a concert with a compact camera under ambient light.

1. A Nikon or Canon DSLR with a fast lens, like 85mm f 1.8 or 70-200 f2.8
2. Buy rechargeable batteries and a universal AC adapter
3. In order to fulfill #1 the camera isn't going to be small
4. You're looking at a DSLR or "transitional" camera -- one that's DSLR-like but with a fixed lens

Bottom line, you sound like you're looking for DSLR performance in a compact camera. That's really not possible so you'll have to do some serious thinking.

Hope this helps and good shooting.