What camera should I choose for my wife for Christmas?

[wxrocks]

I am here hoping for some geeky advice on a camera for my wife for Christmas.

The most important features are going to be speed (meaning "boot up time" and time to capture the image after pressing the button) and taking good pictures in lower light without her having to think a lot about settings. I've been in stores and online, but there are so many choices I'd almost rather have some personal geek experience.

Thanks in advance!

 

[phyzmatix]

Go here

 

[jtbell]

taking good pictures in lower light without her having to think a lot about settings.

How low are we talking about? Ordinary room light? Daytime or nighttime? Without or with flash? Are there any specific situations you're thinking of, e.g. performances at a theater or night club (which can have very contrasty lighting) or home or office situations?

I haven't been in the market for a camera in a few years so I'm not familiar with the capabilities of what's available now, but I think for very good pictures (low noise) in ordinary room light at night, without flash, you probably still need a digital SLR rather than a "point and shoot" model.

 

[Andre]

Go here

Right, maybe http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp

or else go here and search the test reports about group comparisons. Search for "group".

Edit:

Something that the camera manufacturers don't think about is this. Many people just know two functions of a camera: On and click a snapshot of kids/siblings. Ready. No more.

Now the problem with many simple zoom camera's is that they start in the on position in the widest focus angle. As a consequence kids and siblings are depicted very tiny, lost in the center of a very wide picture with lots of completely uninteresting details.

So either learn that there is another handle/control that says 'zoom' or buy a camera without wide angle zoom capacity.

Waiting for the simple camera that goes on in midrange zoom.