Point & Shoot Camera

Sony Cybershot...

If you want to take a punt on this go to chinavasion.com and you will find a few goodies at reasonable pricing and good delivery.Dont forget to use the AUD converter half way down on the RH side.
Havr tried them and they are fine

If you want to take photos in very low light conditions without using flash, then the only choice is the Fuji Finepix F50.

Sony DSCN2 is the Rolls Royce of these ,(Think now superceded) the value choice and by far the biggest seller is the Cannon Ixus 75 through to the 90 depending on your budget. $300 to $650.00 for the Cannon range. (Top to bottom) The Ixus 900TI is 10 Megapixels.

As always, depends on what you want to shoot. I agree with Mike DID re choice for low light conditions, but the camera has a few issues under other light conditions. If you are into landscapes get something with as wide a lens as possible or one of the Canon Ixus range with the stitch assist feature that makes stitching them together easy, I also like my "always in the pocket " camera to have a view finder, not just an LCD screen on the back so I can turn the LCD off. this gives much better battery life as the screens chew up juice. I have been very happy with a Canon Ixus 800 is for this use.
Something else to think about. Pocket cameras are pretty vulnerable to scratching (unless you keep them in a bulky case which kind of defeats the purpose. There is a product called "invisi shield" that is used for protecting helicopter blade leading edges. Seems bulletproof and virtually invisible. Google and you will find it. I have used it on a few electronic things and think it is so good that I would only buy a packet camera if it was a model that had an invisi shield kit available. Not too pricey, but has to be posted from the USA.

Ian

I bought the Sony cybershot DCS W80 recntly for exactly the same purpose. Very pleased with it too.

Peter

Check out this site:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/
Apart from the obvious attributes, worth considering are:
- Low-light capability
- Stitch feature (Canon has it)
- Optical viewfinder. This feature is essential when you cannot see the LCD screen in bright daylight.
Gerry

You should also check out www.photoreview.com.au

Hi Ian

I can certainly endorse the comments made about the Cannon Ixus range.

I think mine is a Ixus 6.0 and it really is a slip in the
pocket and take everywhere unit that gives acceptable performance over a wide range of conditions.

I particularly use mine for taking short videos at VGA 640X400 resolution when out driving and using these to embrass others when they get stuck etc.
You get about 10minutes per 1 gig card which is great.

Pixels isn't very important as the lense and speed of processing
is more likely to be the limitation , so I rarely use mine at more
than about 3MP which blows up well enough for A3 prints.

I got a little slip in case for mine which still allows it to go in a
shirt pocket comfortably, and completes a simple effective package.

Robin Miller

big mega pixels in a small camera is a bit of a wank. the sensors are usually too small to handle it causing excessive noise.
it also creates storage issues mith a 10 meg photo taking up about 5 meg of storage. anything above a 6 meg camera is heeeeps i see some of the p and S are up to 12 meg
my fz50 is 10 meg but i usually shoot at 3 meg and take advantage of the cropping function which gives an effective 24x optical zoom and creates pictureas around 300kb

Hi Ian

Never mind what brand - just choose a recognised 'brand name' preferably with a good brand of lens. Pick one that takes standard batteries of the type you use for most of our stuff. I have two: 1) A Sony, which is a bit bigger and heavier than 2) Olympus which is a small lightweight one when i really need to carry just a pocket camera. Both take two AA batteries; both use the same type of download cord. Both are easy 'point and shoot' with heaps more features if i needed them, and both have the fairly standard 3 x zoom which i find adequate for holiday snaps.

Recently i was holidaying with my sister in Bali and she had chosen a Canon with its own type of battery, and like many rechargeables, it had reached a stage where it only held a charge for a short while, She could only take half a dozen of so photos before needing to recharge, and a new battery would cost as much as a new camera. My pair of AA rechargeables lasted almost all the holiday in my Canon (which i took because of its size) before i needed to put in the spares.

Don't get hung up on the need for more mega pixels unless you have a need to print huge poster sized photos. My first digital was a matchbox sized 1.3 mp BenQ. I can put the photos on a 19" monitor and they are still perfectly clear.

Motherhen

Check out the Panasonic TZ3.

Compact, 8 megapixel, Leica lens, 10 times optical zoom
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonictz3/

It bugs me when people ask for advice on an easy to use camera and people recommend digital SLRs