I recommend Canon PowerShot SD890 IS ..

 

Nikon D40 is very popular

 

post up in the photography forum..

 

Agreed.

Also, don't buy into the "more MP means better image quality" as it's a good marketing ploy, but doesn't really happen in real life. First off, you need to make huge jumps in MP to really get bigger pictures. I spend a year with a 8.2 mp camera (Canon 30D) and upgraded to a 12.7 mp camera (Canon 5D). I don't recall sizes off the top of my head, but for big round numbers the 30D image is roughly 3500x2300 and the 5D is 4300x2900. Sounds like a lot more image than 800 and 600 more. There is a noticable difference in image quality between the two (granted you are using good enough lenses) mostly because the actual sensor on the 5D is much bigger. In doing so each photo sensor is bigger, and less densely packed on the card. When you have sensors that are too densly packed you can start getting noise artifacts very easily. I've seen more than a handful of 10-12 mp point and shoot style camera's that had horrible noise issues at 100 iso. No bueno.

The Canon G9 is a sweet camera, but it's bigger than many other cameras, and it really shines when you want to participate. That means learning about what makes a great photo, not just keeping it in auto mode and snapping away. Not to say that can't lead to great pictures, but at that point you are wasting what the camera was made for. The G9 is essentially a smaller SLR, running it automatically makes it a large point and shoot.

A little while back I picked up a Canon (think I have brand loyalty ) SD1000 for about $150. It's 7.1 mp (minimal noise issues), essentially the size of a pack of cigarettes (I have the camera with me almost all the time, I don't always feel like lugging my camera bag with the 5D, 24-70 and 70-200 around), and the image quality is pretty damn good. I've been toying with the idea of underwater photography while I'm snorkeling, and a set up for my large camera is somewhere between $2-5 thousand dollars, and if anything goes wrong I'm out a lot of money. You can get a good waterproof case for the smaller cameras for $100-200, that's another thing that appealed to me.

The newer version of my little camera is the SD890 IS. It's 10 mp (the VERY max I personally would go for a tiny chip), has adjustable ISO up to 1600 (probably decently grainy from 800 up, but at 400 I'd assume it's solid), it's image stabilized (very helpful), and it's got a 2.5" screen, so there's plenty of real estate to check out.

Very capable camera with a great pricetag, ~$300.

 

So G9 is not quite SLR (for the serious photographers?) but has the things that will allow me to learn about photography in general (but I can use it in "point-and-shoot" mode if I wanted to)?

 

There are lots of good cameras in that price range.

I personally like the Fuji finepix I bought because to me it seems that it exxagerates the colors a little. I take lots of photos in Hawaii and the water never looked very blue when I would take pics. I saw on another forum where people commented that the Fuji's enhance the color so I bought one.

It takes great pictures and colors are very vivid. I bought one with the psuedo slr body which does not fit in your pocket but had a very powerful optical zoom standard. I think it is about a 15x optical zoom.

 

Looks like I gotta look into G9

 

Correct. You can ease into it at your liking, or you can leave it at auto mode the whole time. DSLR's have auto mode as well (or every one I've ever had in my hands has had it), but you need to factor in lenses then. That's when the big money starts coming into play.