Canon PowerShot A540 Digital Camera

I've had this camera and have used it for about three weeks. It is feature rich. There is nothing else in the price range with a 4x optical zoom/6 mp that can offer such a range of use - from beginner to advanced. I did my homework on this one. The movie picture with audio is a real plus. This gives you the ability to take high quality stills and not have to lug a video camera along for the motion shots (unless you wanted to do extended motion). My previous camera is a Pentax Optio 3.2 mp. Much harder to use and controls are built for tiny fingers. No audio on motion shots either. So I graduated up to 6 mp; doubled the quality for a camera that costs less than half of what the Pentax cost 3 years ago.
The SD memory card the Powershot takes is the smallest and least expensive. I picked up a 1GB card on sale at Officemax for $15.00 and it gives me over 1500 pictures and lots of room in movie mode.
Hope my review helps you in your decision.