There was a discussion over at the OLF about cameras and the one that seemed to be recommended was the Canon 590is.
I've always been a Canon user so I did a bit more research and decided it was a good buy for around 200 bucks.
The local camera shop didn't have one so I ended up getting a Canon Powershot SX100is for about $100 more.
The old camera was a Canon Powershot A75. the technology certainly has come a long way in 3 or 4 years.
The Anti Shake technology is great , 10 Megapixel res, Automatic red-eye reductionand it's real easy to use.
With the anti shake technology it's possible to use the digital zoom on full and take pics without a tripod.
Here's an example.

This anti shake business is also really good when using the macro on the camera.
So I'm pretty happy with it so far.
What's everyone else using?