Which of the many compact digital cameras out there is the best.?

All of the major brands have their fans, and I have no doubt that they are all good cameras. The only camera available at the moment that I would stay away from is the Fuji S9500. I bought one and the photos are just not sharp and clear.

Take your time looking, they are getting better and cheaper as time goes by.

Optical zoom is the most important thing, get the most you can for your money.

Digital zoom is a complete waste of time, do not consider this as a factor when buying a camera. Once you have bought a camera, turn digital zoom off.

Get the most megapixels you can for your money.

As a very rough rule of thumb when comparing your final choices in camera, take the number of megapixels and multiply that by the amount of optical zoom. Buy the camera with the highest number.

Try to avoid a camera that uses two 'AA' batteries (except perhaps the Kodaks that can use the CR3 Lithium ion Battery Pack). Get a camera that either uses four, or one with its own dedicated Lithium Ion battery pack. (If you want to keep it for a long time, check the price and availability of replacement batteries. perhaps ebay?) Best depends on your purposes: how compact, is battery life important or do you want a larger display? Is fully manual mode important to you, or just pure point-and-click?

See http://www.dpreview.com/ or http://www.stevesdigicams.com/ for two of the best reviewers, both have extensive buyers guides. I love Canon products, but that's just me... If you want a very compact camera, that's very stylish, made mostly of metal and takes great photos and movies...then I would recommend one of Canon's SD models.

SD600 (Ixus 60) 6MP, 3x optical

SD700 IS (Ixus 800 IS) 6MP, 4x optical image stabilizer

SD900 (Ixus 900 Ti) 10MP, 3x optical

They all come supplied with a rechargeable LIthium battery

Or for a slightly larger camera, but with full manual controls...

Canon A630...8MP, 4x optical

A640...10MP, 4x optical

They use AA size batteries, so I would recommend rechargeable NiMH.

Fujifilm Finepix F30...for low-light, handheld photography (high ISO, no flash)

The answers post by the user, for information only, CeQnA.com does not guarantee the right.