Jobe,
So you're in the market for a digital camera hugh?
Read carefully now:
The picture that Rick uploaded is one I took with a Kodak digital camera. I'm not sure which model it is, because I borrowed it from the in-laws. (Don't tell them I was using it to take pictures at a clothing optional place like Deep Creek ;o) )
Now that I think about it... I probably tried to upload the picture to the forum myself... months ago.
So Rick, were you just now getting around to posting it?
Anyway, the Kodak camera takes pretty good pictures, but I ALWAYS tweak them after I download. Even at a MEDIUM setting, the photos are huge! (something like 1640 X 1280 pixels) So I always resize the digitial photos down to something more manageable. And I generally use a "sharpen" tool to "punch up" the picture and make the contrast better. If you're only posting pictures on a website, anything bigger than 800 X 600 pixels is probably not going to look any better than something with less resolution.
Don't get worked up about how many "megapixels" a camera is unless you are planning to do some serious photography work to enlarge and print your pictures on some hardcopy medium. Probably anthing you buy with more than 3.5 megapixels is a waste... in my opinion. Unless of course, you're doing professional work.
I am partial to Canon cameras. So I would recommend the Canon. They have the best optics on the market. If it has a zoom... get the biggest OPTICAL zoom lens you can. DIGITAL zoom lenses are not true zooming.
If you need an education between OPTICAL and DIGITAL zooming, let me know. When it comes to cameras and visual stuff. OPTICAL is better. When it comes to audio recordings, it's a different story. DIGITAL recordings are better than ANALOG.
Have I overloaded your brain yet?
Bottom line: I don't think you can go wrong buying the Canon camera.
Once you download the pictures from the camera to the computer, you can ALWAYS do some things to play with it... enhance.... or screw it up!