Compact Camera for Dad

[kyleriver]

I have 2 young kids and am on the go with them a lot. I have been taking a lot of pictures with my cell phone but would like a camera that I can put in my pocket when traveling.

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible. - no real budget. Want very good to excellent quality willing to pay up to $800 which I assume is more than I need for a top quality camera.

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?

It must fit in pocket.

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?

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

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)

I am not even familiar with all of these. I would prefer the highest quality possible

* What will you generally use the camera for? - taking pics of kids - primarily taking pics of outside. Some indoor photos as well.

[David Metsky]

There's no pocket sized camera that costs anywhere near $800, so you'll be OK on price. :)

Do you want manual controls? I'm guessing it's not a big deal for you.

Look at the Canon SD850 and SD1000, the Fuji F40 or F31 if low light performance is critical to you, or the Panasonic FX-series. All will do fairly well.