Kodak EasyShare V1253 (White)

Summary: I took the this camera on a two month cruise to Central and South America, Hawaii and the south Pacific. Overall I got some great shots. The compact size allowed me to carry it in my pants pocket EVERYWHERE. The black body and display cover defiantly shows the wear, but the camera still works well after thousands of pictures, including closeups.

The frustrating side is that I misses probably a third to half of the pictures I tried to take. The delay from the time I pushed the button to the time the picture took caused me to miss many shots from buses etc. I got very few good interior shots because of camera jiggle resulting from the slow shutter speed and lack of image stabilization. A lot of time the camera would lock up, requiring rebooting before I could take a shot.
The 3X optical zoom is ok, but not wide enough for a lot of situations.

If you have plenty of time to take your pictures, and you aren't pushing the limits at all, then this camera isn't bad.

Summary: This is the camera for anyone who want's an easy to use point and shoot with high quality photos. The other brands are too complicated for my non-tech savy wife(she's still looking for the "any key" on the computer). I spent maybe three minutes maximum showing her how to work it, she has not had to ask me any questions about how to use it yet.