I agree, Onions. You should be able to get a very good basic camera for about that price. The amount of flexibility you want would be entirely dependant on how deeply you may want to get into photography. A point and shoot with a few options for controlling exposures (like what Nikon calls "scenes modes") is probably perfect for starting out. I chose my Nikon D70s for the same reason Onions chose her Canon. Because my film SLR was a Nikon and I can use the lenses I already had with the new camera. But still I did a LOT of checking first to make sure the lenses were interchangeable before shelling out the cash! Of course, I'm hooked on Nikons, so I probably would have gotten it in the end anyway!

I don't know very much about other brands, really. I've been a Nikon user for 25 years now. I tried an Olympus film camera once and had the same problem. It only lasted about a year. So, I went right back to my old Nikon and haven't tried anything else. My mother-in-law bought a small Olympus digital about six months ago, though, and she's seems very happy with it. I guess we'll see how well it holds up. *g*

I can report, however, that I bought a Nikon Coolpix® 880 when I decided to try digital, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to go that direction or spend more on accessories for my film camera. This was going on six years ago now and it's still the camera I carry around with me. I can't carry my SLR's around all the time, but the 880 is small enough to stick in a pocket. So I take it with me literally everywhere. And at 3.3 megapixels, it gives me resolution that's just about perfect for the web. (My SLR is 6.1 megapixels.) Of course, NOW I'm hooked on both film AND digital!! *lol*

The 880 is discontinued now, but I believe the Coolpix® 4600 is a comparable 4 megapixel camera that runs about $160. That link, btw, takes you to a site where you can check actual user comments on the pros and cons of various cameras.