Canon PowerShot SD800 IS

Pros: quick focus, good color, sharp images, image stabilization, compact size, wide-angle lens, good display

Cons: noisy images when using 1600 ISO

Summary: Ok, so this is my 8th digital camera in the past 5 years. I'm a bit of a spoiled tech junkie. My past few have been very disappointing (the Sony DSC-N1 barely lasted 4 months I hated it so much). This camera wowed me the first day and continues to impress me. It takes gorgeous pictures straight out of the camera, no futzing with photoshop required. I've used it at drunken college parties and even the pictures at the end of the night were clear and in focus. Some of the most gorgeous landscape pictures I've ever taken have been produced from this camera. It's completely pocketable, is ready to snap pictures very quickly so it's great for using on walks or when hanging out with friends and family. The colors are fully saturated and very accurate. I have a film camera I use for macro with all the fancy lenses, but this camera has a reasonably good macro mode given that it's a point and shoot. I don't use manual settings with a point and shoot, it's like driving a chevy and asking it to perform like a ferrari... you can try, but you'll be disappointed so why not use it for what it's good at? Two irritations: low light pictures without flash are noisy.. ok, that's expected but disappointing given the image stabilization (which does do wonders for indoor pictures! Finally clear pictures of family gatherings inside!!), second, it doesn't scale down the flash for macro (so when you're shooting macro something that needs just a bit of filler flash it blows it out completely). I absolutely adore this camera and whole-heartedly recommend it for the everyday photographer who just wants a camera to take gorgeous pictures of friends, family, trips, vacations, pets, etc.