Ok I increased my budget to 250.00. Looking for a gift for my parents who cant seem to get out of the 35mm game. What is the best ALL AROUND digitalcamera out there with a good zoom,battery life and great pics? Looking at kodaks but til you buy the camera, dock, and extra card you are up there. Please help asap time is running out. Thanks.

I would say if you could spend $300, the Canon A610 would make a wonderful gift.

It has great ergonomics, excellent photo quality, a 4x zoom and five megapixel sesnor.

For a little less money, you could get a Canon A520 which is a four megapixelsensor. The A520 costs around $200 so you could still buy batteries, charger, and a small compact flash card.



- Terry

We really need to know what sort of 35mm camera your parents use. Is it a simple point-and-shoot or an SLR?

They have a complex minolta I believe but sometimes they are wanting to email photos and such which is where the digital would come in.

If they enjoy their "complex" Minolta, you may wish to think about getting them a digital camera with manual controls for exposure and other settings. They can still leave everything on Auto initially if they want, but I bet they will appreciate those manual controls.

The Canon A510/A520/A610/A620 would be my recommendation as well. (They're all pretty much the same camera with progressively higher resolutions and prices, so you can pick one of those based on your budget).

A camera with a big lens will have more zoom AND better image qualitu (as you can see at http://airshowfan.com/guide-to-digit...as.htm#dontbuy ), and your parents may appreciate the 35mm-like form factor:

http://airshowfan.com/guide-to-digit...igital-cameras

With your budget, I think something like a Fuji S5100 would be perfect. It's relatively small for its big lens, has a 35mm-SLR-like form factor, has great image quality, is an excellent point-and-shoot, and also has the option for manual controls if your parents want to use it like an old SLR.

I hope that helps.