Hi, Betsy,

Is this for hiking? I have a lot of cameras in my bag (I shoot for a living), but for hiking my old Canon G7 is my usual choice. It provides manual control, a compact size (though still heavy-ish for hiking), a decent zoom range, Image Stabilization (required IMHO), and good image quality at low ISO settings. If I had to buy a new hiking camera right now, the G10 or G11 would be among the top choices.

The Micro 4/3 cameras would be my other choice. The Panasonic GF1 body is about the same size as my G7, but provides significantly better image quality because of the larger sensor size (though the zoom lens makes it larger.) The Olympus m4/3 cameras are also very good, and have built in Image Stabilization, so every lens is stabilized. I'd probably get the GF-1 with the 14-45 zoom and the 20mm fixed lens.

If you want a DSLR, pretty much any of the current consumer models are decent choices. Pentax is very good, as are the various Canon and Nikon models, etc. I would base the decision on how it feels in your hand. Get lenses with image stabilization (or get the Pentax and get I.S. in the body.) I've been shooting Canon cameras since, er, 1985, so I have some natural preference for that brand, but it's not based on anything other than personal preference. The TS1 is a nice camera, the 18-55 I.S. lens is actually quite decent. If you want to step up on the lens, the new 15-85 zoom is supposed to be very good.

Happy shooting.

--Ken