I am confused in buying a digital camera of 6MP.my budget is 250$.which is good sony DSC-600 or samsung S500?

sony only hav automatic controls but samsung has manual controls.or should i go for another brands?

I don't find that Samsung model for comparison yet, but I know that it does NOT have an optical viewfinder. That alone would be enough to keep me from buying the camera. You get to read my rant of the month.

I lament the passing of the optical viewfinder and I would choose almost any camera with an optical viewfinder over one that only has an LCD viewfinder. Why?

1. You never have the option of turning off the LCD and these things eat batteries for lunch and spit them out. Why do away with the option of a viewfinder that has zero electrical drain?

2. You have to hold an LCD viewer out at some distance in front of your face. This is more conspicuous than I prefer to be all the time.

3. The need to hold a camera at arms length will introduce some shake. I like the idea of stabilizing a camera against my face when I am taking a picture. This is especially important with a longer zoom lens. No wonder "image stablization" or "vibration reduction" is necessary with these cameras. Not that there's anything WRONG with IS or VR, but it is really a requirement with LCD viewfinders and telephoto lenses.

4. Using the LCD to view photos after you've taken them slows down the camera quite a bit. You can't shut of the LCD monitor and still take pictures if you don't have an optical viewfinder.

Rant over.

Since you asked for additional recommendations, consider a Canon Powershot A540 for about the same budget. The A630 is great, if you can swing it...

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

Sony uses the best lenses on the market for their cameras and camcorders. If you want to have really great colors and picture detail, I'd say go with sony. Chances are the automatic controls will work just fine. The only down side to sony is that they use a different memory card than all of the rest of the cameras. The nice thing about Sony is that their cameras are completely compatible with everything else they make. For example, if you buy a Sony HDTV or computer, it will have a memory stick slot. All you have to do is pop it into the TV or computer and you can view all of your pictures without having to figure anything out.

Other brands I'd recommend are Cannon, Kodak and Samsung.

you should go for a kodak easyshare Z730

The Canon Powershot SD600 is probably the best camera out there in it's class for it's price range. It's only $215 out-the-door on Amazon.com. I just bought one earlier today.

I use an older Samsung camera for making digital passport photos in my lab, and some in-store stuff from time to time. I am not too impressed with my particular model, but haven't tried any other Samsungs.
I would check out the Canons and Kodaks in that price range as well. And Nikons and Olympus while you're at it.
You can check features and read reviews at dpreview.com.