[pearsall001]

I'm in the market for a new camera to replace my old Sony. I have my budget set at $300 & want a pocket size camera for convenience. I'm not a big camera type of guy. What should I be looking at? How many megapixels, zoom, battery life, etc. & any other worthwhile features. The Sony we now have eats batteries like crazy & it has a very long delay till it actually takes the picture. You pretty much have to time the picture you're going to take & you pray that nobody moves or else they'll be out of the picture. Very frustrating. I'm hopeing cameras have progressed to where they have better battery life & take a quicker picture. The simpler to operate the better. My wife does most of the picture taking & the camera has to be easy to operate without getting too confusing. Any thoughts? I just looked at the Panasonic LUMIX cameras & they looked pretty good. Yes, no? What brands do you recommend. Thanks.

[chip]

http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/equipment/advice/507488/best-compact-cameras-2010.html

http://www.dcresource.com/buyersguide/

[charmerci]

You can't go wrong with the Canon S95.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-S95-Stabilized-3-0-Inch/dp/B003ZSHNGS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321647349&sr=8-1

[Æ]

Even the cheapest of cheap cameras have an abundance of Megapixels. Picture quality is what matters most.
How long after you press the "On" button does it take until the camera is ready to shoot? What about focusing? Does it focus quickly? I prefer to test drive the camera before buying it. How does it feel? Is it easy to use? Comfortable to hold? Are the functions and features intuitive? I also prefer being able to use AA batteries instead of some model only proprietary battery.

My favorite website for camera reviews.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

[groovybassist]

I can second the Canon S95 - my wife and I had an S90 and left it in a rental car (doh!), but it was a great small camera.  We've replaced it with an Olympus XZ-1; a little bigger, but takes great pictures - better than the S90 from my perspective.  Both of these are a bit over your price range, but maybe you can catch a sale coming up (Black Friday, etc.).