6/15   Anyone care to recommend a digital camera?  I want a 6x zoom at least.
       Optical.  At least 1280x1024 resolution. --PeterM
        \_ honestly, from what you want, i can tell you that anything
           on the market will do.  It is *IMPOSSIBLE* to make good 6x zoom
           lenses anyway. so, the piece of glasses/plastic at front of your
           camera will be the bottleneck on the image quality.  For
           just average image quality (which is what you want, and there is
           nothing wrong with that), just get the cheapest 2 megapixel
           camera you can find on the market... unless, you are a gadget
           geek and want the woo and ahhs from your friends.
           A word of advice: 2x zoom is good for normal uses, and the shorter
           end is more important than the longer end.
                                -- kngharv
        \_ 1280x1024 < 1.5megapixel, so you can go low end...
        \_ I have a Cannon S330 and like it a lot. It only has a 3x optical
           zoom, but it may be sufficient if you only need 1280x1024 --twohey
           \_ My S330 is a 2 MegaPigal camera.
        \_ Definitely look at the Fuji 4900/6900 and the replacement for those,
           S2 or something.  If you want 6x or greater in a decent camera
           that doesn't cost $1000+, you're looking at Fuji or Olympus. -tom
        \_ Peter--I have a Digital Ixus 300.  It's not the newest or the
           best, but it's still the nicest camera I've ever had.  The colors
           are great, and although it's just 2.1MP and 3x optical zoom,
           I can only recommend it.  http://www.dpreview.com had some
           great objective criteria when I was trying to decide.  Also,
           keep in mind that I will buy a regular 35mm film camera if I ever
           want really high quality images.  -John
           \_ If you can wait, wait until the true "digital SLR" comes out.
              Right now, the SLR is not quit there yet because they can't
              make the size of the sensor equal to those of 35mm.  That
              will be at least 3+ years from now.
                \_ why do you care about the size of the sensor?  It has
                   virtually nothing to do with image quality, unless you're
                   using a recording medium with low resolution (like film).
           \_ by the time you do that, digital will be higher-quality than
              35mm.  It already is in many cases.  -tom
              \_ depend upon what do you mean by higher-quality.  If you are
                 talking about images on computer screen, perhaps.  If you
                 are talking about large prints, then, digital still got a
                 long way to go compare with Leica or Contax.  Then again,
                 most people who is serious about photography tend to
                 use medium format anyway.
                \_ top-quality digital cameras already compete with 35mm for
                   print quality.  Even my camera, which is two generations
                   old, produces better 8x10 prints than cheap film cameras.
                    -tom