Canon PowerShot® S5 IS Digital Camera

If you have less than $300 and want to buy a nice camera (not just those flaky point and shoots), the S5 is defiantly your best choice. Here's why

Let's start out with the features. First, the megapixel-age. The camera is 8 MP (which is higher than most cameras on the market). This means you can print up to 30x40 inch photos without them appearing grainy.

However the megapixels is not the only thing a camera needs. The S5 has an amazing optical zoom. A 12x optical zoom to be exact! Combined with the digital zoom you can get up to 48x closer with the S5 (you should use this in movies, since it does not lose quality).T

The S5 also has tons of features such as a Red-Eye Correction, face detection, etc.

The Movie Mode is amazing. You can zoom while taking the video and even take pictures while taking the video.