Hi all! I have been reading other people's posts for a few weeks and figured it was time I step out there and ask for some help. I recently had to put my sony mavica mvc cd-500 out to pasture. Prior to that I had a canon power shot p&s. I was blown away by how much more "professional" the photos taken with the sony looked with very little effort. I am always getting compliments on my the professional quality of my photos and believe me I have no artistic ability! So, I am looking for a new camera that will give me the same beautiful photo quality. Here's the lowdown:

- I really would like to spend less than $800-600, but will do it for the picture quality.

- size doesn't matter

- i don't know much about megapixels...

- i would like to have pretty high zoom capability

- image quality is probably #1 for me...isn't it for everyone? just wondering!

- i would like a camera that i could learn to use the manual controls...brush up on my photography skills a bit

- generally the camera would be used to take family photos...i have two young children so i would be nice to use the camera for events (sports, plays, etc.) as they grow into

- someone already suggested to me the sony dsc-h7? i'm not sure why...

- i think i would like image stabilization...it sounds like something i would probably need, right?


thanks for your help!