Best camera I can buy my wife under $400?

Dudes;

I don't pay attention to cameras. Do not think about them at all. I know zilch about the state of the art. My wife just wants something easy to use yet powerful for taking family pictures. We are reasonably tech savvy and will download pics to picasa or iPhoto. Zoomage in the lens? Bonus.

Help a man get his wife the right Christmas gift. For once.

Hh

Olympus E-PL1 is a great little camera. Bonus is its interchangeable lenses. She wants to get into photography, she can expand the system.

s110?

Same for the Nikon J1 (J2 is out so the old model fits your budget).

Slightly worse low light performance than the m4/3 Olympus and Panasonic cameras but with much faster auto focus. It's easily the best mirrorless interchangeable lens camera for AF speed right now.

Good choice !

The Canon S100 (predecessor) is usually on sale now for under $300.

Great camera, takes stunning pictures, love mine.

Took these while on a zip-line tour over Thanksgiving holiday.






Mike

Panasonic. I use one of these for my riding camera.
It takes pretty awesome photos in automatic mode.
They have low to mid-range photography figured out.

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-FZ60K-Digital-Camera-Optical/dp/B008MB6YX6/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1354909247&sr=8-9&keywords=panasonic+cameras

Or simple 'go in the pocket' camera.

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-FH25K-16-1MP-Digital-Stabilized/dp/B004NBZ8DQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1354909247&sr=8-4&keywords=panasonic+cameras

Without a doubt.

Cute, small, yet very capable. Great wife cam. Hell, great anybody cam. I seriously considered one before going a different direction.

canon link

Nikon AW100

Compact, waterproof, and drop proof to 5 feet (kids?)

The lens doesn't bug out so you don't have to worry about that mechanism failing or jamming.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-COOLPIX...F8&qid=1354937615&sr=8-2&keywords=nikon+p7700

Another P7100 fan here. But any camera has to feel "right" for her.
Lyle

You might choose a camera after considering a long list of specifications and have her choose a camera because it's red. This was my recent experience helping someone buy her first laptop.
OTOH, those Canon "S" series cameras are wondrous. I've had an S90 for a few years and it's been great.

Thanks a lot for the help fellas. ADV rules. I am liking the Nikon Fz-60K since it comes with a pretty reasonable zoom (24X) out of the box.

Best,

Hh

In that class, consider the Fujifilm HS30EXR as well. Their unique EXR sensor technology does very well to reduce noise (grain) in low light photos and to reduce blowing out highlights (turning them all white) in high-contrast very sunny scenes. The zoom is also properly located on the lens barrel, the LCD tilts for easy viewing at difficult angles, lens is threaded for 58mm filters. A better photographic tool, IMO.

I've been very pleased with my FujiFilm X10.