My eldest daughter has asked me to suggest a camera for her so I've been looking recently. Her two criteria are 'small' and priced between £150.00 and £200.00.
So far I've shortlisted the Sony DMCW210S which Wizkid has linked to in an earlier post and the
Panasonic DMC-TZ4
The Panasonic is listed as a Best Compact Camera on Steve's Digicams. This choice is by no means final but I have determined that both cameras are good.
I have yet to look at other Panasonic compact cameras but I figure final choice will be a Panasonic or Sony from all the reading and searching I've done.
Steve's Digicams is a good site for info but I soon realised many of his Best camera choices are quite old, up to 4 years in some cases and quite a few are no longer manufactured. The site also doesn't offer a critique as such, it merely states what the cameras have and what they can do.
But, as I said, a good site full of information.
Chris is right on the money when he says lens quality is a bigger consideration than megapixel count. Anything over 5 megapixel will blow up nicely to A4 size and I don't see many people requiring bigger prints than that.
To state a case, back in 2002 I bought my first digital camera, a Canon Powershot A40 which was 2.1 megapixel. But it had a superb lens and I still maintain that all four cameras I've owned in between the A40 and my current G9 have taken inferior pix to that A40.
If you look at my 'Glastonbury 2003' pix in the Photographic section of the forum, those pix were taken with the Canon A40.
And guess what? Chris bought the A40 from me and last I heard his sister was using it. I kinda wish I'd never sold that camera, lol