I know that Nikon and Canon make models in that range, and in some cases below that range.

1) Megapixels are almosy useless in assessing camera quality.
2) Perhaps a high quality camera from 2-3 years ago (better optics but fewer megapixels) is a good option as a compact ’spare’ camera (e.g. from ebay)
3) It’s probably worth spending as much as you can on your main ‘events’ camera because if and when you do spend a few more quid (or dollars) on a decent camera, you’ll look back at the old photos and feel a bit of regret that they don’t look as good as they could – I know I do

[Edited at August 06, 2008 10:21:33 AM.]

I think you hit the price point on the head. Most people will consider the $150-$200 range discretionary and affordable. Any higher than that, and you have to budget for the purchase (in some way).

Like you, I carry a phone with a camera. The iPhone has a 2MP camera. The Tilt has a 3MP camera. I bought my daughter a 8MP Kodak camera for $139 at Wally World. I think it was originally $179 and was on sale. Its a good camera, and uses the Kodak software (which my wife really likes); so it was easy to hook my daughter into that photo library as well.

Just my 2 cents…

I would expect only throwaway quality at ~$100, and would start assuming good quality once you hit ~$250.

Here’s a question for you… You say you keep a camera in your gear bag for those times when you ‘wish you had a camera’. What kind of camera is it? One with rechargeable batteries? If so, I would think that it would be probable that if it is something that doesn’t get used often, then it would have dead batteries.

Personally, I wouldn’t carry a regular digital camera around in my back pocket all the time, because I have a camera built into whatever mobile phone I happen to be carrying around at the moment. And since it’s part of my phone, I won’t have to deal with a dead battery issue. The issue I will have to deal with is the crappy image quality though ;o)

Someone emailed me to say that I should review a $300, $200 and $100 priced camera. Since I’ll be purchasing these cameras out of my own pocket, I don’t think I’ll be going that route ) I think I’m going to take the middle of the road approach and find something around the $150-$200 price point. Stay tuned…

I have one i keep in my bag in my vehicle (where i keep all my junk so it’s not just loose in the truck) for those ‘Oh I wish I had a camera’ moments.
It’s better than any cell phone camera… I won’t be taking portraits with it, but it does a very good job on a good quality unexpected snapshot.
snapshot being the key word.
In the old film days I had less than 5 pictures I had made into 8×10s. the other thousands are just standard sized photos, and most are never looked at more than a couple of times.

Some picture is better than no picture.

Compare the viewing of old 8mm home movies and home videos… it’s so inexpensive now we have a lot of slag no one cares much about… 3 minutes of Christmas morning from 1965 is a lot more viewable than 90 minutes…

ANYways…personally, I’d be inclined to take the ‘best’ cellphone camera and go a couple of ’steps’ above that benchmark. Assuming that everyone who has a mobile, has a camera included therein … then the purpose of purchase would be to capture higher quality images than a camera phone would allow.

A.K.A.: $300-

=)

[Edited at August 05, 2008 10:53:43 AM.]

[Edited at August 05, 2008 10:54:14 AM.]