Chuck,
I've owned digital cameras for 10 years or so. I've had HP, Canon, Kodak and a few others.
I just bought a new camera for CHristmas. It's a Fuji Fine Pix S5500 Zoom.
I like the fact that it can be fully automatic(camera picks best exposure, etc.) or you can go fully manual, overriding the shutter and/or aperature. You can also do burst photography (multiple frames per second) and record video with sound (up to the limit of your storage card-unlike other cameras that have a preset limit for video capture)...
You are also able to screw on filters to the front of the camera..which is a plus!
Here's what the camera looks like:
I bought it at Best Buy..with the extra storage card it was $440.00.
Just my two cents.
Bruce