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If you’re ready to enter the world of digital SLRs, the Nikon D40 is a great way to do it. It offers a compact, truly portable body, great performance and photo quality, and a really user friendly interface for not a lot of dough. I can recommend the D40 without hesitation. I would say that the Canon Digital Rebel XTi is a somewhat more capable camera, but it also costs nearly $200 more. With that in mind, try both if you can, but don’t think that you’re giving anything up by getting the D40—you’re not. 

While not for everyone, the Nikon Coolpix S10 is a unique point-and-shoot ultra zoom that earns my recommendation. It makes some significant improvements over its predecessor, the Coolpix S4, adding image stabilization, a stronger flash, a sharper LCD, and more. It’s not without a few annoying flaws, though. If you want a fairly compact ultra zoom camera that can take some creative shots, then the Coolpix S10 is probably worth a look…

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Do I like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50? Yes, quite a lot. Am I disappointed that Panasonic stuffed a tiny 10 Megapixel sensor into it and then turned the noise reduction to eleven? Very much so. The FZ50 is definitely the best designed ultra zoom out there, and it’s a real pleasure to use. It’s also the largest and most expensive of the bunch—in fact, it’s even bigger and more expensive than some digital SLRs! If you’re a person who doesn’t plan on taking a lot of high ISO shots then I can certainly recommend this camera…

The Olympus Stylus 750 is one of those cameras that sounded really cool in the press release, but I ended up being less than enthused with it when I actually had one in my hands. While I like its stylish, all-weather body, 5X zoom lens, and image stabilizer, the photo and video quality is lacking, the LCD is hard to see outdoors, battery life is below average, and low light focusing left much to be desired. There are better cameras out there for your hard-earned money…