[reldridge]

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Not exactly small, and over the budget, but a great camera nonetheless.

The Canon's are always a good value. You can't go wrong with them.

What are you going to be taking pictures of? Will you be taking many low-light, party style pictures? Does a high zoom appeal? Do you want rechargable batteries (li-ion) or AA compatible? The more we know, the more we can narrow it down.

Myself, I just bought a Panasonic DMC-FZ7. SLR control, 12x zoom, 6 Megapixel resolution and rechargable battery for just over $500 ($499.99 at Henry's)

If I was to buy a compact currently, I'd strongly look at the Fuji F30 ($429.99 at Futureshop or Henrys) Review for F30.

To be honest, if you stick with a big company (Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sony, Olympus, Pentax) you won't get a bad camera. If you go to some of the 'other' camera companies (Kodak, Samsung, Sharp, Mercury(?), etc.), you're taking a small chance. Most of the lesser-knowns offer hundreds of features, but lack quality in image processing and lens quality (Kodak is a catch-22, so is HP - some are great, some suck).

The key is research, research, research. DPreview.com and DCresource.com are both great sites to check out. On DPreview, check out the forums too for actual user reviews and samples of the cameras you're thinking of.

Any questions, fire away, and narrow down what you want to do with it so we can help more! :)

Ryan <- ex-camera sales nazi

P.S. I still have some contacts in the Ottawa electronic sales game if you need a hook up