Which Camera

[Supacabby]

This all depends on your budget & what you want the camera to do for you!

Compact means simple, easy to use but not necessarily the best results.

Bridge means exactly that, a bridge between a compact & an SLR.

SLR is something that sounds like it would be too complex for you.

Zoom: What kind of zoom do you need? That's a lot of what goes into the price of a camera, the lens is the most expensive part!

Battery: AA size or cameras own with a charger? Personally I use one of the latter, much better battery life but the downside is you can't just pop into a shop & buy a couple of spares! Rechargeable Lithium Ion AA's are now available, not cheap but worth it for a camera & remember that both flash & zoom will use up battery life a lot compared with point & shoot.

If you're budget will stretch to a bridge camera I'd go for the Panasonic Lumix, some good advice here: http://www.photographymonthly.com/camerafinder/bridge-results?type=2

Have fun choosing, it's a minefield out there!

PS: Photo Filtre is another good free software package for the more common tasks: http://photofiltre.en.softonic.com/download?ab=1

[bewva]

Thanks for the replies so far. To clarify the camera I have now has a Lithium battery and lasts for yonks and I would not buy one without as my previous camera used standard batteries like they were going out of fashion.
I want compact type with zoom similar to what I have as a/ wife needs to use it (so needs to be simple) b/It will be small enough to go in wifes handbag.
Its many years since I used my old trusty SLR.
I will check out the flash situation as sugested Keith.
If I photoshop all the ones I took in August I would be at it for about 2 months.
Thanks guys.

[stoop]

Depends what you want. I have a Fuji 2500hd bridge camera and it ticks all the boxes for me. Has red eye reduction and removal ( if you forget to alter the flash). Also takes great pics with one lens from macro to 18x. Fully auto or manual and they cone in about £150 now. Later models zoom to 36x.

I use rechargeable duracels and they last for ever.

Oh - and it takes hd movies with sound.

You might need a bigger handbag though  

[tinkerman]

red eye is caused by light from your flash bouncing back off the back of your subjects eyes and illuminating the blood vessels, it occurs when the pupils are dilated, in other words when the light is low and when the falsh is too near the lens axis.
the risk can be reduced by  by either raisng the light level so the pupils close a bit or by moving the flash so the angle of reflection is directed away from the lens which is pretty difficult with your camera.red eye reduction systems are pretty rubbish as they usually result in startled or unprepared expressions when the actual picture is taken.

[stoop]

Never really had that problem with any red eye reduction pictures but I must say I do like the red eye removal tool on my camera. It basically just does the job that photoshop does but without all the hassle. No more red eyes  

[DianeT]

Though all the photo's posted on the forum are good (thought I'd better clarify that before getting shot  ) the ones Jacx posts are always amazing not sure what camera she uses but I think it is mentioned somewhere on here.

[KKOB]

As an ex-professional photographer (amongst other things) I can tell you that, it doesn't matter how much you pay for a camera, if you don't understand a few simple basics, you'll only ever take snaps.

Put, "How to take good photographs" into a search engine and you'll get directed to thousands of sites, all of which have something useful for you to learn.