I need a new camera. Our current digital camera is a Kodak EasyShare CX7430. We’ve had it for almost 4 years.

It worked well for about a year and a half, then the batteries started to do weird things. It came with Kodak rechargeables, and when those wore out, I bought some more rechargeables directly from Kodak.com. But they wouldn’t recharge! Now, we have to take the batteries out whenever we’re done taking a picture or they’ll die within about 1 hour, even if the camera is turned off. That got to be really irritating when we were in France because I had to carry about 8 extra batteries with me wherever we went to replace the ones in the camera. Not fun.

I’ve been doing some research and found a helpful page on Photo.net. It looks like the best digital cameras are either SLR (single lens reflex) or SLR-like. Decisions, decisions. It seems that the SLR-like cameras would suit my needs just fine. While the SLR cameras do have extra features, I don’t really need them – I’m not a professional photographer, nor do I want to be, I don’t want a big, unwieldy camera (which I’m told is characteristic of SLR cameras), and I don’t need the extra capabilities that an SLR camera has, particularly the ability to attach specialty lenses.

It seems like the best options are one of the following:

– Kodak P880
– Canon PowerShot S3IS
– Canon PowerShot S5IS
– Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18
– Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50

Hopefully, I’ll make a decision within the next few weeks. I really want to have a nicer camera for the holidays and for when we go to St. Thomas in January!