After much research here is what I found to be best in class digital cameras:

(First...if Tigerdirect.com sells it expect the best price and their service is great.)

Best $ 200.00 Digital...Olympus D-580...very nice crisp colors 4 MMP.

Best $ 300.00 Digital....Olympus C-60....6.1 MMP...simply outstanding.

Olympus owns the $200-300 market. Some of the Canons are good too. MInolta is not the same since they merged with Konica..read that "Made in Taiwan".

The the Panasonic/Leica FZ-20 can be had for $ 450-500

Then the Canon Digital Rebel about equal to the FZ-20 if you want an SLR but it is made in Taiwan and comes with a cheap lens and can only accommodate Canon accessories. I personally am sad to hear all this as I was going to buy one.

Then the next move is to a Nikon D-70 system at say $ 1,500.00 before adding a long range zoom lens and eventually expect to sink around $ 3,500.00 into it. Worth every cent.

Then the Contax digital system when you have 10 grand to sink into a really serious W. German camera and Zeiss lenses. Skip the Leica as the Contax kills everything in it's path.

You have been doing your home work

You may notice that many retail Photography stores will not sell Olympus point and shoots. There is hardly any mark up and they outperform most of the other brands they make a lot of money on.

I picked up an Olympus Stylus 300, it is small enough to fit in your pocket and was really surprised how good the pictures were.

Olympus cameras are the most reasonably priced digitals that take crisp clear vivid color pictures and the only thing about them is you have to go to Target to buy them. There is hardly any mark-up on most models up to the $ 300.00 price point. Camera stores can't stay in business selling them.

The ccd and lenses are great; reliability is the best in class and they are easy to use.

Got mine off one of the sites I use. Did you have a good day? Benn rainy and cold here.

Circuit City, Best Buy, Comp USA, B&H, Office Depot all seel Olympus...

anyone interested in accessories for the FZ cameras should look at this web page

http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/FZ-10/

http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam...e-Compare.html

the second link tests a FZ10 with the Canon TL-55 and a few others also... btw the Olympus TCON-17 had the least distortion in my opinion.. now I'm gonna go look at it's price

Ernie

Nice Bike

I also have a new digital Rebel and I love it. I have a quantaray zoom lense from our 35mm Rebel and it works fine. I have alot to learn with photography so jeaston can you suggest any books that I can read for the basics on up?