Coppers Mom we have the Canon, we have had two cause of the break in in Shannons apt. Somebody got our first one!
The picture quality is great but you know me Im just not a digital person, I love my old SLR, but I have to say the digital is much more practical. We have 4 mega pixles and three times optical zoom. I know that optical zoom is what to look for as digital zoom loses picture quality but thats about all the technical stuff I know. $400.00 should get you a great little digital, as I said Im very happy with the Canon "Sure shot" I think its called. Ours isnt even a really recent model. The only thing I don't like is that it takes time to focus or set up or what ever the heck it does, theres a delay, i don't know if they have worked this out in the newer models.