Please Help Me Buy A New Camera

[delaware]

I am about to get my first digital camera and ofcourse like everybody else, I don't know what to get. I was really looking into buying the Canon SD200 since its design seems really nice but I have come to notice that there are a lot more factors that I should consider.

These are the things I am considering the most:
1. 99% of the pictures are going to be people, so I need a camera that takes good pictures of people.
2. Must be handy and must fit pocket. This does not necessarily mean it has to be ultra-small as long as it fits in my pocket without making me look like a camel.
3. Must take good pictures in poor lightning situations. This includes having a decent flash as well. I really know nothing about lightning and I'm sure most of the times I'll take pictures in dark places like clubs and such. Most of my pictures will be indoors as well.

The Olympus Stylus series seem to be what I have been looking for but the review on this site doesn't seem to be that impressive. Maybe I should go for the quite popular SD200 afterall?

By the way, can anybody tell me what is an AF illuminator and what does it do?

[TheObiJuan]

the AF illuminator is a red/orange light that is lit up to help the camera focus in low light. it is a necessary feature for low light photography on P&S cameras.

i have the sony p150 and love the way it captures skin tones, that is what i shoot the most btw.

it is small, i keep it in my pocket all the time, and has a okay to decent flash.
i do like the 3 flash levels to choose from, so I dont get overly fill in pictures.

the p150 might not be your cup of tee, but it is mine. surely there are better cameras out there, like the Olympus E300, Kodak 7590, and etc.

the sd200 is a great choice, but no manual modes, the lcd doesn't gain up, and redeye might be a problem.
I know my Sony doesn't have a redeye problem.
But the price difference is signficant at aprox. $450

good luck.

[Newbie]

I suggest you check http://www.pbase.com/cameras to see how well the camera performs and if you like it. Also you can check how skin tones look with that particular camera.

For your 1st point, I think only you can decide and it will surely be done with pbase. For your 2nd point, I think there is no camera that can fit in your pocket better than the SD200, its so tiny its incredible. As for the 3rd point, the camera is supposed to perform relatively well in low light situations because of the new DIG!C II processor; it has in integrated flash which means its nothing to be crazy about, but its a nice thing to have and for you its a must since you don't want a mounted flash and you need a flash for low light situations. That will mean you will get some red eyes because the camera is so small, the flash has no other choice but to be close to the lense, but that holds true for more compact digicams. The flash on the SD200 is not a weak one, I'd say its average or above average... I don't own this camera, but having seen it I was impressed by how incredibly small it was, even if I knew it was roughly the size of a credit card.