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Just thought I would pass this along.
I bought my wife and daughter the Sony Cyber-shot? Digital Camera DSC-W300Series highlights: 13.6 megapixel, 2.7" Clear Photo LCD Display, 9 point auto focus, Intelligent Scene Recognition, Smile Shutter? technology, Super SteadyShot? and HD output.
$329 at Sony and absolutely spectacular for a P&S camera.
We also own Canon P&Ss and SLRs and have no complaints, but the Sony was a real pleasant surprise.
Sony got a big shot in the arm with the acquisition of Konica-Minolta. That and making sensors for Nikon has made them a major player in the digital imaging arena.
I second the Sony surprise. My wife bought me one of the 7 MP, 3x zoom, etc., sub $150 units (last year, now the equivalent is sub $100) for Christmas last year (that'd be Christmas 2007, to avoid any confusion). I have been very pleasantly surprised by it. I had hoped for a Nikon or Canon or other long-time camera brand and was surprised when my wife had picked a Sony. I had been hesitant to consider Sony, although I am a fan of their electronics, never had any complaints with my TV's or walkmen or anything else that I have bought that was Sony, just that I figured well made electronics did not necessarily translate into good photography equipment. It takes very nice pictures and is very compact (I actually take it fishing, most times) because it fits into my pants pockets (I can even fit my BlackBerry and it in the same pocket, but I try not to). Two "complaints" are that it only takes Memory Stick flash memory which is $10 to $20 more expensive than the equivalent size memory cards of other standards (i.e. SD/CF/etc.) even when on sale and, since it is compact enough to slip into a pocket, the round switch that selects the settings (i.e. fully auto, nighttime scene, etc.) gets changed easy and I have messed up some photos because I thought it was set to fully auto, but instead the setting moved to something else and the picture comes out blurry or grainy. But those "complaints" don't really affect the camera's performance, I have yet to fill up the 2 Gig MS I bought right after I received it and I just have to keep in mind to re-check the settings after pulling the camera out of my pocket.
All-in-all, given the current prices, I would highly recommend the current Sony equivalent of mine for someone who wanted a camera to toss in their tackle box or car so that they always had a camera with them, you know, a backup or second camera. Would I recommend it as a primary camera? Yes if you could not spend more than $100, but no, if you could spend more, get one with more features and as high a MP count as you can afford. Even using the same ceiling as my wife used ($150), you can get a camera with higher MP and more features, this is one area where things will continue to get better every year. Now if only Sony would let go of the MS flash memory and use the more widely accepted standard flash memories then they would probably be more readily accepted.
Paul