Digicam cheap but quality?

[dtbmnec]

I appeal to those of you with more digital camera experience.

I'm hoping to buy a digital camera when I get a job in the next little while. I'd kinda like to keep the price somewhere under about $300 maybe $350 tops. It doesn't have to be one of those super "I do everything but upload the pictures by myself" cameras but I'd like a decent one.

Any ideas? Looking for sorta the best quality for the amount I'd like to spend.

Megan

[Prin]

I looked on Consumer reports before buying mine and we love it. it's a Canon Powershot A510. It's a relatively small 3.2 mega pixels and 4x lens, but it's perfect for the doggy shots. We got it at Costco for $220 (while we're waiting to be able to afford the Rebel SLR digicam). It's cheaper than the $300 you wanted to spend, but it is just a great value in a camera. It's one of the quickest ones too (still kinda long with the flash, but fast without it) and it has a lot of settings to choose from. You can also take movies in different sizes with sound and you can edit them a bit on the camera. We researched like madness and tried out a few before settling on this one. It's simple, easy and CHEAP!

Sample pic from my camera:

[BMDLuver]

We have an ancient HP Photosmart Digital Camera. It has been chewed on by a huge dog, dropped on the floor by me (oops) and tossed by our kids. Darn thing just keeps working and working. We've had it about 5 years now so for me, this camera is obviously great. They are reasonable priced as well.

[chico2]

I bought a Sony Cybershot 6.0 Mega Pixels,with a larger screen and a Carl Zeiss lense(whatever that means ) at $349+tax,but you can now get them for under $300

[mafiaprincess]

I know this thread is a few weeks old.. But I just spent a month doing research... Best buy, Future shop and Henry's all suggested to me for all around cameras canon, Nikon and Fuji.. and if I was more worried about print quality than online quality to go with HP.

Consumer Reports listed a camera above the one I bought as the number 1, and 2 below mine as the number 10..

I ended up with the Canon Powershot A530 5.0 MP..
For basic features with barely flipping through the book I'm loving it so far. Lot of people on another forum are jealous cause it's taking nicer pics than theirs do.. I paid 246 for mine + tax..

Sample Pic:

[x.l.r.8]

I'll put my , I got the Fuji f30 and I really like it, it was on sale as was the sony something w50 (I think).
It has enough settings to keep me amused, the video is nice but I'm just playing with that as a gimick. The photo's that I take correctly are good, the other ones (on the wrong settings) are poor, but thats because I wanted to see if it did really make any difference.
The memory cards were cheaper for the 1g than the Sony, the things takes some 580 shots on one charge highest quality with the screen flashing the pic for 1.5 seconds after the shot (so far I have not needed to recharge it), and it has a nice screen.
It has poor covers on the charge port and doesn't have an optical view finder (the sony does), the battery/card cover has a nice solid feel (why the other cover is so poor I don't know).
I'm happy with it but considering how old my last one was, a box brownie would have been better. I will keep my SLR but I don't think I'll ever be in a position to use it again, and the cost of the Digi SLRs is making them look viable.
Oh the Fuji also had lens adptors and the provision for a slave flash, 2 things I will probably end up with.

[x.l.r.8]

Oh forgot to mention, fuji at future shop just dropped to 299.99, and the Sony was 299.99 at Henry's (Fuji was 309.99), I went to Barrie as Japan camera had the cheapest deal, but the sales girl was the rudest B1tch I have ever met, so Henry's got my money. They were pretty good but I could have picked either and felt it was good, I do like the additional battery life and cheaper memory though.