I am still exploring the Konica Minolta Dimage G530 camera. Its my second dimage because the first one (Dimage x) was fantastic. I went upmarket with this one.
I like it very much but am concerned about indoor image quality. It may need more manual control then I am used to.

The Konica Minolta Dimage G530 is my first digital camera. I did some research before buying one, but not specifically research for this camera. I have had it for about a month now and I haven't had any problems. It has a 5.0 megapixel resolution and 3 X optical and 3X digital zoom. It also has a lot of technical settings that I haven't quite learned to use yet, but it has settings for ISO, exposure, white balance, RBG intensity, and more. You can change these settings quickly while you are taking pictures. I have never gotten the hang of cameras, since I could never afford a decent SLR, but this digital was only 199.00 and I plan on learning the features. The video function is quite good, but get a tripod if your going to shoot a family event or wedding. The video quality is medium-high, but mostly for indoor stuff. For picture taking, it has a really good night setting that can be used with or without flash and some of my best pictures so far have been night shots. If you don't want to learn any advanced functions and just want a point and shoot camera, I can tell you this one will give you a great shot in just about any conditions 99 percent of the time. The close-up setting is excellent, and if you are into photographing flowers this camera will not disappoint you. The red-eye reduction is very good and you can set the flash to no flash, regular, or fill with the touch of a button. The camera is very rugged. I have dropped it a couple of times, once on concrete, and it didn't get hurt. The last positive I have to write is that it can hold both a memory card and a memory stick. I believe you can set the priority for one or the other. If you think there is not enough battery life for this much memory, then buy the accessory cable to plug into your wall-jack so you can run the camera in video mode indefinitely - a nice feature for family gatherings. Now if they could only make one of these cables for a car's cigarrette lighter!

The only complaints I have about this camera, and they are minor, is that the door for the battery housing can open a little too easily. This happened to me a couple of times when I was about to get a nice shot, but you learn not to fumble around the battery housing door pretty quickly and it's not really a problem. The battery lasts about 3 hours with steady use but there is no way to know how much time you really have left, just a battery meter that switches to half full but really means just about to quit altogether. The only other thing is that the review monitor on the back is a bit small, but that's not really an issue once you download the pictures. If you feel it's important to show the pictures to folks using the camera's own monitor, then this might be a problem.

Overall, I would highly recommend this camera. Take a look at some other reviews and make a choice, but I dare say you could spend twice the money and not get more than this camera offers.