Looking for good family camera

[aethos]

I'm looking to get a new digital camera soon, would appreciate any recommendations! Thank you!

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.
up to US$300


Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
the smaller the better as we will be looking to use it on family holidays as well

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?
Up to 6

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)
Standard is enough

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
10! I'm too lazy to mess around with photoshop so the less touchup the better

Do you care for manual controls?
Don't really know how to use them.... occasionally I turn the flash off. Does that count? LOL!

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
Mainly indoor shots of family, group photos. Some outdoor pictures when we're on our annual family holiday.

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
No

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Yes but more indoor shots

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
No, other than the occasional running child.

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
Open to all suggestions!

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
Nikons don't seem popular on reading the reviews but a friend has a Nikon Coolpix 3200 which gave really nice group photos. Would like similar image quality (or better if possible!) but in a newer model (in the last 1.5 years)

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
Would like Image Stabilization and something that picks up faces in a group shot? Not sure what that's called.

[jleonardjr]

I just bought the Canon SD800 IS and like it a lot. It is above your budget number though. I got it for $364 from newegg.com with a 1G SanDisk memory card and shipping included (no sales tax).

It has image stabilization, face recognition, is small enough for your pockets, and takes great pictures. You can also turn the flash off!!! I use it mainly as a point and shoot like you would. The manual mode doesn't offer much in the way of manual controls. It performs well indoors to me. Supposedly the Fuji F30 is better with indoor/low light conditions so you may want to look at that review on dcresource too. I have heard the Fuji isn't as good in outdoor light though as far as image quality goes. I don't know how substantiated those claims are though. You can find the Fuji F30 for about $100 cheaper. I seriously considered the Fuji but went with the Canon for the image stabilization and because I will use it fishing and hunting and didn't want to risk having a camera that wouldn't produce as well in outdoor light conditons.

I really found the reviews here at dcresource helpful. They not only helped me pick a camera I am happy with but also taught me a lot. Reading through the forums helped educate me too. I also read customer reviews on the sites that sell cameras like newegg.com.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

[bascom]

Canon A5XX, A630, Fuji F30.

[aethos]

Thanks for the suggestions! The Canon A5xx and A630 seem a little bulky to me but I like the looks of the Fuji F30. The Canon SD800 IS is a little out of my budget though but another option could be the Fuji F31fd since there's not much difference in price. Another thing I was concerned about on the F30/31... seems like it's getting harder to find xD cards around now and I'd hate to buy a camera only to find that the storage becomes obsolete soon after. Thanks!