I just bought me the Canon Elph 100. I can't tell you about it because I haven't used it yet but customer reviews gave it a high rating. I got it from Best Buy for $109.00. My last digital was a Canon Power Shot. It's a very easy camera to use. You will love the digital. The nice thing about digitals is you can pick and choose what picture you want to copy. How many times have you taken a whole roll of film to be developed and maybe there's one or two pictures that you really like.

I have always had good luck with my Olympus cameras. Also, Cannons are very good. The Olympus point and shoots are easy to use. Some have had trouble using the software that came with it, but I found it easy. I don't know if they still come with CamMedia or not. I know my several year old version does not work with Windows 7, and they did not have an upgrade to windows 7 the last time I looked, but should have a new version with the new cameras. You can also use the photo program built into windows for it.

Tami

Rather than give you a specific make & model recommendation I would rather give you some general information that will help you make the descision as to which camera is best for you.

On first inspection all digital cameras, whether they are simple point & shoot or high end professional DSLR's are a bit intimidating because they have all sorts of buttons and drop down menus. DO NOT LET THAT SCARE YOU. All digital cameras, regardless of how big or small have a fully automated mode where you can use it as a point & shoot camera and get perfect results from your first shot and you may be happy using it in that mode for the rest of your life, but I must warn you ahead of time, digital photography is addictive. Once you start getting great point & shoot type pics you will no doubt get curious about what else you can do, from extreme closeups in your flower garden to shooting a bird a 100ft away. And what parent or grandparent doesn't want a few action photos of their little darlings participating in organized sports and such? The point is, you want a camera that won't break the bank to purchase and is ready to go right out of the box, but one that can grow with you as your skills and knowledge improves.

Back in the days of film you had two choices, you could get a point & shoot and live with its limitations or you could buy an SLR and had to enter a formal study group to learn how to use it, but such is not the case today.

They do still make Point & shoot cameras which typically sell in the $60 to $150 price range, but I would not recommend those. Most of the new point and shoot cameras do not have an optical viewfinder (an eyepiece you look through). Instead, they use what is called "Live view" where the picture is displayed on the lcd screen on the back of the camera. In some circumstances Live view is highly desirable, but live view requires a lot of energy, which dramatically shortens your battery life, and it can be very difficult to see when outdoors in bright sunlight. In addition, most point & shoot cameras have a fixed focal length lens or one that perhaps offers 2x or 3x telephoto, and some offer an additional 2x digital telephoto, but that is only a process where the camera crops your image down. The problem with the digital tele is that as it crops the image down, it is reducing your negative size, which then dramatically reduces the size of quality prints you can expect to get.

You could step up to an entry level DSLR but even the basic entry level DSLR's start out at around $500 plus the cost of a lens and they are generally much to bulky for those who want a point & shoot.

Fortunaely they make what is known in the industry as "Bridge Cameras" because they bridge the gap between the el cheapo point & shoot and the expensive DSLR.

Bridge cameras will generally average about $200 and upwards to $400 but when you see what you get, they are without question one of the best bargains in the industry.
Bridge cameras will operate in simple point & shoot mode, requiring no technical skills from the operator, but they also have the full range of shutter speed and exposure controls that are found on the professional DSLR's. Now, while the bridge cameras do have a fixed lens instead of interchangable lenses, they offer some fantastic zoom capabilities on the lenses they have. They will generally all have zoom lens that ranges from wide angle to 6x or 8x and some even have zooms that go as high as 15x or more. The bridge cameras have an optical viewfinder which means when you look in the eyepiece you are actually looking through the camera lens and you are seeing what the camera sees so you need not worry about chopping heads and feet off and some even offer the live view as an option for shooting in dim light or framing a closeup. And while on the subject of closeups, most of the bridge camera lenses also have the macro feature so you can shoot extreme closeups.

You mentioned that you want to be able to put your photos on a flash drive. Nearly all digital cameras use SD or SDHC cards for memory. The actual number of photos that you can fit on a card depends upon the size of the card and the size of the files that are created by your camera, but to give you an example, I shoot a Pentax K10d DSLR and when I use an 8gb SDHC card and shoot in the highest quality JPEG mode, I can get 1615 photos on a card, but then I never go in the field with just one card either. I carry four or five spare cards and a minimum of 3 spare Lithium batteries and I can get 700 shots per battery. If I am going for a weekend I also carry my battery charger for the car.

To upload your photos to the computer all the cameras have an umbilical cord that plugs into a USB port, but I find it just as easy to pull the memory card and plug that directly into the computer card reader. In a Windows operating system when you plug the card into the computer and box comes up and says it found a memory device and asks you what you want to do, Hit "import photos" and it will automatically upload the photos into "My Photos" on the computer. I then put the card back in the camera and use the camera to format the card, which erases it so I can start over. (You can also pull the card and insert it into one of the photo kiosk machines at your local photo center to select what you want printed.)

One thing I would caution you. When you are selecting your new camera find out what type and size of battery it uses. Some of the smaller cameras use a special battery that is designed specific to that camera. If that is the case, you may have difficulty in finding a spare battery, especially in the future. I learned the hard way because I have an older HP point & shoot that has a battery that will no longer hold a charge, but they have discontinued production of that battery.

Many of the point & shoot and bridge cameras use AA batteries, which means it is very easy to find replacements and even the rechargeables are not expensive. (I would strongly advise you be sure to get rechargable batteries).

If the camera you select uses a proprietary battery find out if that battery is used in other cameras or by other camera manufacturers. If it is in common use by many cameras the odds of it being discontinued any time soon are greatly reduced. Also, if the camera uses a lithium ion battery that is an advantage because Li-on batteries provide much greater power than ni-cads or Nickle-metal halides.

When you get your new camera generally they include a simple photo editing program with the camera software disc but I would suggest you also download a free photo editing program from Google, called "Photoscape".

Photoscape is a very powerful, yet very user friendly program that is totally free. No spam, no spyware, and none of that 60 day trial nonesense. I have three professional photo editing programs but I find that Photoscape is my basic go to program for all but the most demanding edits.

Here is an illustration I made that will give you examples of the different types of cameras...

I have an Olympus & a Canon point and shoot. In my case I prefer the Canon, but my Olympus is water resistant(a feature you may not want). Both have optical zoom and digital zoom. The digital zoom has what is referred to as digital "noise"...that means fuzziness. So it's basically a zoom feature I find useless. :0) Optical zoom on the other hand zooms in to get a closer shot.....pay attention to THAT feature.

Lazypup mentioned lithium ion batteries. Another superior feature is they don't form a memory. So you don't have to wait until they're completly drained to charge them! :0)

Next to consider is the video feature. The video feature takes more memory and battery power than taking a single picture. It often records with lower pixels. Check to see what limitations the "video" feature lists. For instance...how long will it record a video for AND at what MP?

Spending a lot isn't necesary either....generally you can get a nice point & shoot for under $125.

Lazypup - great information!

Thank you all for the fabulous information. I will admit it seems overwhelming....so different from putting the 110 film in the slot and clicking away.

SamKaren
your resident DJ

Be aware that some...but probably not most...cameras come with a charger instead of using easily bought AA batteries. I hated the camera I had that needed to be charged like a cell phone. It seemed like it always needed a charge just when I wanted it most. Much easier to carry spare batteries. And lithium ones last a nice, long time!