Good Camera for Night shots.

[cncity]

Hi guys,
Im planning to buy a new digital camera, but finding it hard to make a choice.
Im very amateur with camera's. I had a simple Canon A310, which died. Im looking at buying a camera which is abt 5-7 mp.( thts more than enuff i guess ).

Its for regular use. But wat im looking at is a camera that takes Good Night photo's. The night pics from A310 were all dark,but day pics were good, though the camera was slow ( time between taking 2 consecutive photos was longgg..) So im looking for something that can take good night pics like the fireworks of 31st December or even photo of downtown with the building lights. My budget is around $250-500. Ive heard about Canon S3 IS and Fuji F30. Is there any other camera that has better photo quality, like other Canon models or other brands, Fuji, Sony, Panasonic ...? Plz advice.

Thnx.

[tim11]

F30 and S3 IS are different cameras. Both in size and applications.
S3 has all the controls anyone can wish for and extra long zoom to boot. It is large compared to F30.
F30 on the other hand is a compact and has only Aperture / Shutter Priority controls and 3x zoom. F30 is very handy for indoors lowlight shots.
For fireworks and city skyline night shots you surely will need a tripod no matter which of the 2 cameras you end up buying.
What other uses will you have for the camera and what kind of size do you want?

[X-SOFT]

if you'll be lucky, you'll find Eos 300D somewhere+kit lens..

[cncity]

Actually i changed my mind about the Price. I dont wanna spend so much on a digital camera when the prices will reduce in just a few months. The Canon S3 is selling for $450 here ( + abt $100 for a SD Card.)

So now im looking at camera's around $300 and probably smaller in size, which can fit in a pocket.. Its almost 99% for family/friends photo's, nothing professional. Also im not sure if small size camera's can run on AA Battery's. that would be cheaper for my pocket + i already have a Compact Flash card, which i can use for the new camera incase that camera supports a CF card. Im a student so kinda hard on cash.

I looked at Canon SD600 ( $299) , Canon SD 630($329) , Canon A530 ( 229) ,Canon A630 ($329) , Fujipix Z2 ( ($189), Nikon P3 ( $329), Olympus Stylus 810 ($279).

Not sure which is the best one, any other suggestions ?

[RebelRat]

The only cameras I know that still uses compact flash are DSLR's.

I think the A630 would be pretty good. Most A series still have manual controls which are useful when you want more control of your camera.