It depends on how much money you wish to spend. I can personally recommend the Canon G9, Canon Powershot 650 and The Olympus DSLR E-500. There are other great cameras as well that are highly recommended. They are The Olympus SP 570 UZ, Canon Powershot S5IS and the Fujifilm 8100fd. There are of course much more expensive Digital SLR's but they will cost quite a bit more, will be heavier and bulkier to carry. If you want something small to fit in your purse then I recommend the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS. I usually like a viewfinder, because I find that using that LCD on the back of the camera can get a lot of sun glare, thus making focusing a difficult task. I also like Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority on the camera. A little longer than normal zoom is wonderful. Image Stabilization is also a super duper feature. As you can tell I love cameras. hehehehe. Have fun!! Maggie

Thank you Maggie for the information on the cameras. It looks like it will be a hard decision to make. I will go online and look at all these cameras.

Again thank you so much for your help,

Jennie

Here are two excellent review sites. They give unbiased reviews on quite a few cameras:

http://www.dpreview.com/

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

I always check out a camera thoroughly...I always make Image Quality a priority. Have fun!!

I have three digital cameras - two Kodaks and a Canon. My favorite, by far, is the Canon S5IS for the qualty of photos and video clips. It also has a couple of really nice features, like "color picker'. It also has a large LCD screen, as well as a viewfinder, excellent macro setting and image stabilizer. At 8 megapixels and 10x optical zoom it will take quality photos to suit most users. Good luck with your shopping!

I have decided to go back to college and change my major from Buisness Management to Photography. I want to get a headstart on taking Quality photos and have a really crappy digital camera(Argus DC-3185), my budget is small(under $200) what would you recommend?

Hi leahsfrog. I recommend the Canon Powershot A580. Price is in the $150 range. It's gotten excellent reviews. Good luck! Maggie

I have a pentax. Forgot the exact model number. I LOVE the pictures it takes. the thing I don't like is that there is no viewfinder. That makes it really hard to take pics when it is really bright or really dark.

i think people see the prices of some of the super duper new cameras and think 'omg!!!' but really, the 'cheap' cameras are the ones that were super duper expensive only a few years ago. i was looking at the high priced ones recently and they boasted you could make poster-size prints but umm... i'm not going to be doing that LOL. so i look for around the 7-9 range (rather than the 15+ that are out now) and look for ones with lots of options for different lighting, speeds, etc.

As with anything, you get what you pay for when buying a camera. Granted, there are so many settings on the more expensive cameras that the normal once in a while photographer will never use, nor understand. But in my humble opinion you need to buy the Best camera you can afford.
My best friend purchased a wonderful Canon Rebel XT camera (discontinued model) on Saturday. He bought the display model from our local Target Store for $250 complete with all the accessories and a 28 to 70 mm. lens.

I started to show him how to use the camera yesterday and within a few minutes he was taking awesome photos! :)(Even in Macro!) :)

[IMG]http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b218/grandpawrichard/Honey%20Bee%20Photos/Verlenandhisnewcamera1.jpg[/IMG]

If you look around you might just find an awesome deal like I did for him!

Richard

Richard, you are sooo correct. When buying Digital cameras or any other computer equipment, you usually get what you pay for, but buying as you did takes luck to be in the right place at the right time. lol That's a great camera.

I've never owned anything but a canon. And I would never own anything but a canon. I'm a Rebel all the way. :)

The 'best you can get' cameras I see around here are over $1500 lol. I would take a $250 one any day of the week!

There are loads of cameras that will take beautiful photos for less than $250. I have a couple of them. I have given a $179 camera to my Granddaughter for Christmas, she took some photos after Hurricane Katrina, (with the camera) made a video with the pictures, and got a scholarship to Tulane based on the video.
It's not the camera that takes award winning photos, it's the user. (Take a peek at some photo books by the masters, like Ansel Adams and Margaret Bourke White.) Horrrors..........not even digitial. LOL
Maggie