Shark, I looked at quite a few reviews of digital cameras before I bought my Canon, and it came out rated as highly as a lot of the $300 and $400 models. It's a DREAM to use, just set it on "Auto," hold it still, and take the picture. It's very good about adjusting to the ambient light conditions, and the software that it comes with makes it very fast and easy to download the photos onto your computer. It even organizes them for you by date taken, with each date having its own folder.
Oh yeah, and it takes very damn good HD video too, but you better have a big-ass memory card for that one.