Hi,

http://www.dpreview.com is a good site to check out cameras and reviews. There are at least 3 different types of digital cameras – point & shoot, zoom and dslr. Each has its advantage and disadvantges and you need to decide what you are looking for in your next camera.

My first digital camera was a Nikon 5400 (then considered a prosumer range) and I was a bit disappointed with it. My husband has a Canon SD400 which we are both very happy with. What i miss though is a good zoom. My experience with Canon digital cameras has been very good.

Happy hunting!
Ujwala

Canon is always a great bet—their point and shoot camera reviews are always top notch. I personally recommend any of the powershot series.

As far as night shots, the best quality will come from SLR cameras. Those however, are expensive; and they have a bit of a learning curve for the advanced modes.

I recommend you stay with a point and shoot until you feel the need to move onto bigger and better cameras. Also keep in mind that unless you plan on making very large prints (larger than 8×10) you won’t need a camera with more than say 6 megapixels. In this case, you’d be just fine grabbing a good condition Canon SD450 or similar(PowerShot series) off of eBay for half the price of the newer Canon powershots.

Also a quick note; digital zoom is useless, if you want zoom, look for optical zoom. That of course comes after physically getting closer to the subject you’re photographing.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; if you’re really interested I suggest you pick up some books and read up. Most important of all, good photos don’t come from good cameras, they come from good imaginations.

I have a Canon Powershot A610. It’s only 5MP, so it challenges me to work harder to get the perfect shot every time.

I’d like to graduate to the Nikon D40x or the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, but those are both rather expensive and not quite considered point and shoot.

The Canon Powershot series are very versatile and probably the best point and shoot series on the market.

Whatever you choose, make sure you balance MegaPixels and Optical Zoom. Digital zoom merely crops images rather than acting as a true zoom. A 10mp camera with a 2x optical zoom is not very versatile, and neither is a 5 MP camera with a 10x optical zoom.

You want balance between MP and OPTICAL zoom for greatest versatility.

The best point and shoot camera that I think I’ve ever had is a Casio Exilim V7. It has 7x optical zoom, and can be completely manual, so you can change the settings to take great pictures at night…. This was taken at about 11 at night…

A good example of balance is a 7MP camera with 7x optical zoom.

You may find some cameras with 8 MP, but they only have 2x optical zoom. You won’t have much of a zoom at all.

My Canon Powershot A610 has 5MP with 4x optical zoom, however I do have the tele-converter lens which gives the camera another 4x or so optical zoom.

Attachment lenses are fun. I also have the wide-angle lens attachment.