A note about Mega Pixels (MP). No longer should you choose one camera over another because it has more MP. Recently some camera manufacturers have reduced the number of MPs in order to increase low light performance. The SD400 and S90(both listed below) are two 10MP cameras that offer excellent low light performance for a P&S.

Super Budget
Panasonic Lumix LZ8K 8MP 5x Zoom Lots of features, easy to operate and image quality is excellent.

BudgetCanon PowerShot SD1300 IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Silver) Lacks some of the frills of the other cameras but provides the Powershot reliability and excellent image quality in a variety of situations

Mid Level
Panasonic Lumix ZS7 12 MP 12x Zoom 3.0-Inch LCDHuge Zoom, HD video recording and excellent image quality in a form factor that slips into a pocket.

Between these twoCanon PowerShot SD4000 10MP 3.8x ZoomVery similar to the S90 below but with HDvideo. You lose the slick control scheme and a tiny bit of low light performance. But if you are looking for a traditional P&S form factor with excellent quality in video and stills this camera is hard to beat!

High end
Canon PowerShot S90IS 10MP 3.8x Zoom Extremely high quality images with very little noise, even at higher ISOs, almost DSLR like quality. Genius control scheme lets you have as much or as little control over manual shooting.

Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any questions.

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• 8MP
• Face Detection, Intelligent ISO, Intelligent Scene Selector & quick AutoFocus
• Easy mode and Full Manual Control

A excellent camera at a very nice price. 5x zoom with optical image stabilization and intelligent ISO combine to give you blur-free photos. Face detection and scene selectors insure that the camera settings are are correctly matched to your subject(s). And finally a really nice wide-screen movie mode at 30fps, something you don't see in other cameras at this price. This camera has excellent reviews and if you use a set of good rechargeable batteries(see note below) you can get nearly 500 shots on a pair If you have someone that is trying to learn photography this camera is not a terrible place to start as it offers full manual control.

A solid performing camera at an excellent price.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8K 8MP

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