I was recently in the market for a camera also (I'm going to Olympic National Park in August and want some pics). I wanted something that had realtively good picture quality, was mainly point and shoot, was compact, and was light. I found that in the Cannon PowerShot SX 100 IS. Here's a link to the Circuit City info...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Canon-Pow...roductDetail.do

Quick summary of it...8 megapixels, 10x optical, 4x digital, 2.5" screen, and weighs officially 9.4oz. I would recommend rechargeable AA batteries, and you'll need to get a case and a good SD card separately.

All-in-all, I'm really pleased with this camera. Since I only got it in December though, it hasn't been used nearly as much as I would like. So far I've only made it 3 places, and I've posted the pics from 2 of them on my photobucket page. Once it warms up a little, I'll be going out much more often. Feel free to check them out, but please please please remember that photobucket shrinks pictures and these have indeed lost some quality.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v313/bpwwrestling/

I hope this is helpful info.