I personally have a Canon Powershot and it's OK but we just bought my son a Nikon Cool Pix and I love that camera...when this Canon bites the dust that's the next small, digital camera I get. It retails for about $249 or so but lately all the camera stores around us and I think even Best Buy and Walmart had it on sale for $199 and we got it in the limited edition color red but you can get it in black, too.
You should get some great ideas from this thread that's for sure.