aNdY,

Here is a constructive advice. (It is not mine -- I got it from other
website). Go to your friends and look at the album of their photos.
Choose the ones which you like. Then anaylse them and try to
understand, in which conditions they were taken. E.g. either it was the
pictures of birds in the wild which were taken with a 10x ultrazoom
acemra, or were those the party pictures taken by a compact camera with
low-light capability. After that you will be able to decide what CLASS
of camera you need. Then read the reviews of the cameras of that class,
pick up 2 or 3 or 4, and then go to the shop and buy ANY of them. The
cameras of the same class from different manufacturers have the same
capability. You cannot go wrong by choosing one over another. You
should buy that one which you really like. It happens -- love from the
first side. And you might dislike the ergonomics of the camera which
you did not like.

The other advice would be to get a cheap digital camera, and use it for
while. After that you will understand what exactly quality you need in
a camera. This is what I did -- I bought Kodak C330 on sale for US$150,
and after half a year I realised I was ready for something better, and
after a short agony over Fuji F10/F11/F30, Canon A700, Panasonic LX1
and TZ1 I realised I needed LX1 and that's what I bought. I am happy
with the choice. Though, at the moment I realise that 90% of all the
pictures I snap with Pana LX1 I could do with my old Kodak C330, but
that's a different story...  :-)

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