I am looking to buy a digital camera, but I really dont know what to look for.

can anyone reccomend a good camera from personal experience (or pure unbounded photographic knowledge)?

I'l looking at the $200-400 range.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Well I have a Kodak 3600, works pretty good.

Check out http://www.steves-digicams.com (http://www.steves-digicams.com/) for more info and reviews.

I've been looking at thet steves-digicams site for a few days now. I really like it. Unfortunately i find his conclusions a little too impartial.

I have an HP phtosmart, i got a deal on it but it's a cheaper model. The camera numbers every image it takes and we used it so much that it reset the # back to 0, it was 10,000 or 100,000.

Anyway, we took alot of pics with it and have had no problems yet, it was dropped and the cover for the batteries broke but it still works great.

I plan to buy a newer one when i can afford to, a higher res one, maybe not an hp but i can say that the one we have now works like a charm.

First of all, I would check out www.dpreview.com

This site has excellent in depth reviews of tons of cameras. I have the Olympus C700 UZ. Its 2 megapixels and it has a 10x compact optical zoom. I really like it.

~Chris

I currently have a Canon PowerShot S110 (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2001_reviews/s110.html) (was replaced by the PowerShot S200 (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/s200.html) ) and they also have s300, s330 as well. Seems there's a new one released every day.

Someone who had mine said that the PowerShot s30 (http://www.steves-digicams.com/2001_reviews/canon_s30.html) or s40 was better, though those two hit the top (or over) of what you want to pay (s200 I mentioned before runs about $350).

I like them due to the size and features, but if you weer to go Canon, I'd probably get the s30 and sacrifice the size. Mine is as big as a pack of smokes, but the quality and the movie mode is better on the s30 than mine.

I'm pretty sure you can get as good quality (if not better) for less with another brand, but you have to decide what is important to you. Size, resolution, features, movies, etc., all play an important part. All nowadays are decent quality, even the sub-$200 ones.

I've got some research to do. I like that canon models a lot, same with Olympus.

I'll read up on them and keep my eye out for a deal somewhere.

Ebay would be great if I lived in the US

I've got a Canon Powershot A10 - I forget how much I paid for it, was something like A$700 (~US$384.30 at current exchange rates).

Great camera with good quality - there are some photos I've taken with the camera at http://www.shaunewing.com/photography/city/index.php if you want to take a look (the original images aren't grainy - the slight grain you can see is the result of the watermarking process).

I just wanted a reasonable camera to take some snapshots with - so the Canon was perfect for me (it's 1.3mpixel). Depending on what you want to do with a camera will depend on how much you spend, etc.

I've had the camera since February so I'm not even sure if my particular model is still sold. There is probably something better out now :)

--Shaun