What is the best digital camera for my budget?

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From Canon:
-SD1000 - can be found for about little more than $200 online (such as Newegg.com, Buydig.com, etc.). Very good image quality. Also nicely built, good handling, and stylish.
-SD850 - successor to one of the best compacts in recent years, SD700. Optical image stabilization, great image quality. Around $400.

From Fuji:
-F31 - one of the best low-light capabilities of compacts (important for natural looking indoor pics). Also rare in compacts, manual controls (of course auto is also avail.) Could be had for around $200 (after rebate) online.

From Sony:
-T20 - around $300 online is also good compact and maybe the most stylish.

(All of the above also have great movie recording capabilities)

Nikons of recent have mediocre compact digital cameras, so wouldn't recommend any from them...

www.techrobat.com

you can try Canon Power Shot SD600...........it has both still photography and video recording. the sound quality is great too. you can get it for around $369. Do check out if hey have any offers in Fry's or Circuit City

Well, I wouldnt' get an SD600. Not that it was a bad camera in its day, but it's an outdated model.

$400 is near the high end for compact digicams. You really get a great compact digicam for under $250. I'd stay away from Nikon. They make great DSLRs, but aren't keeping up with their compacts.

If you're willing to go $400, the Sony T100 is a great camera. Nice package, good operation and they sneak a 5x zoom lens in that little camera. A pretty good one too.

If you like the Canon brand, they do make some nice cameras. The venerable SD700IS is just being replaced by the new SD850IS- which may be a better camera, or may just be a higher resolution, noisier version of the 700. Nobody knows yet.
The SD800IS might be a good choice, as it does have a wide angle, 28mm lens- which is very handy. Although, the lens on this camera does get a little blurry in the corners. So, if you're a stickler for image quality, this might bother you.

I like the Panasonic FX series, as they also have a 28mm wide angle and image stabilitzation.

My favorite is the Fuji line though. the F20 or, with more features, the F31fd, which you can get for under $250. The key feature of these cameras is their amazing low light capability. Perfect for party shots, indoor social shooting, etc. It's also a very quick/responsive camera and the battery lasts forever (580 shots).

bump up your budget just a bit and get the nikon d40

i would recommed the canon SD700
it's compact, six megapixals, 3.5in LCD screen and it's uses and SD card which are always on sale for less then twenty dollars for a gig, plus canon makes some of the best cameras

Nirav
He who laughs last, thinks the slowest

I used to have an Olympus Stylus 720. It was around 350 dollars, MP was 7.1, it was water proof, shock proof, and it had a warranty. It also had video recorder. Depending on how much megabites or gigabites the card holded depended on how many pictures of videos you could have.
I had around 2G and it held up to 2 hours of video.
Clear quality, too.

Even though I currently own this ultracompact digital camera, I would still like to highly recommend the purchase of a Nikon Coolpix L10 for the following reasons:

1. Besides taking well-exposed hi-quality 5 megapixel pictures, it uses a standard set of rechargeable double AA batteries which last a very long time;
2. Has a 3x optical zoom;
3. The flash setting for "red-eye" correction is on the navigator wheel and not within a submenu;
4. It's very small and light;
5. Uses inexpensive SD memory cards;
6. The digital video feature takes wonderful "sound" videos which are noise free. It records the piano very well with it's built-in microphone;
7. It comes with a USB 2.0 transfer cable which you connect to your USB computer port;
8. Has tripod mount on bottom of camera;
9. And the price is a mere $99 [sold at Samy's Camera - www.samys.com, and Staples.com.]

Review(s) can be found at www.amazon.com [Query: "Nikon Coolpix L10" along with pictures provided by satisfied purchasers.]

Good luck!