Digital Camera Choice

Hi all

I hope this is the right forum for this, I seem to remember something about a digital photography forum but I can't find it.

I'm heading off on a 6 month gap soon, and I'd like to take a camera with me. I took a 35mm on holiday for only one month round South America and managed to get through 12 films, of which 1 was ruined and 1 lost by the developers, so a combination of those setbacks and the sheer bulk of 12 films per month has persuaded me to go digital.

So, I've got a budget of £150, to which I'll add some money for extra memory cards and a decent case. I'd like it to be a traditional camera shape, an example of which is here:


http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Sony...ntview-001.jpg

I'm not too worried about size as long as it's not ultra large, and I'm not after an SLR, more something akin to that picture and my trusty old 35mm (which I'd can't find a picture of)

Not worried about options, I'm not an advanced photographer, just something that will record good travel shots out of the box.

A bonus would be something with very simple connectivity, to just plug in and have the files appear in explorer would be very handy. A decent video function, something slightly more than a quick add-on would be great too.

And seeing as it's going round China, something sturdy from someone reputable would go down well.

Last point, the budget can be stretched if there's good reason to.

Thanks in advance for all advice!

For £150, you can't really get anything other than a point and shoot camera, which means you're going to miss out on potentially spectacular scenic shots you could get with an SLR. If you're P+S, its best to get something that at least have a degree of manual control. It's also worth buying a mini-fold away tripod for those slow-exposure night shots - there's nothing worse than thinking you've taken a great shot only to find out that it hasn't come out in the way that you had hoped.

Anyway, the best £150ish cameras are probably:-

Cannon A75 (or A80 is your budget can stretch that far).
Sony DSC P72/73
Nikon Coolpix 4200

You'll also need to budget for several SD cards (or memory sticks in the case of the Sony).