Good digital camera suggestions?

So I'm in the market for a good digital camera that's not ungodly expensive (the parents offered to buy me one for my birthday/Christmas present).

Current camera is a Fuji FinePics A303, 3.2 megapixels.
Pros:
- small and light
- plug-and-play with every computer I've encountered
Cons:
- shutter speed seems *really* slow - without a flash, the pictures turn out blurred beyond recognition even when the batteries are fresh and the camera is stationary.
- sometimes adds a strange glow-like blur around the edges of the subject even with a flash. See Anger's tattoo pic for an example.
- recently started putting in strange moire-like lines across some pictures, especially the ones taken outdoors in full sunlight.

So basically, I want a decent camera that is capable of taking pictures (they don't have to be perfectly clear, but at least recognizable images would be good) without a flash (ambient light is pretty cool sometimes) and without the strange blur-glow thing.

Any suggestions?

[Edited on Oct 05, 2003 by Shalome]

I know the one we just ordered is a NIKON.
Nikons rawk. Buy one. (They put food on our table!)
I cant think of the name of the camera.- I'll find out when hubby gets home.

Canon makes excellent digital cameras. Also you could check cnet or pay $5 for a one month membership to Consumer Reports Online. When I was looking for digital both of those sites said Canon was the best for what I was looking for and they weren't wrong.

I'll vouch for this. I bought a Canon S10 like four years ago then bought a Sony 4 megapixel job last November. The Canon still puts the Sony to shame. I'm sure Nikon is the same too as I think the experience in optics far outways the experience in the digital side when it comes to designing digital cameras.

Note on the Sonys: Warmer colors (reds and red-browns in particular) tend to bleed a lot more than with other brands. Plus the LCD screens on them slightly scew the composition of the picture toward the left, but only by a little (so little that only you will be able to notice, probably). Other than that, their great, though.

i agree...you wont find a cheap camera that can give you good low-light photos...id suggest a cybershot from sony...theres a bunch to choose from...theres a 5-megapixel user friendly one for about 600 at the website...which means if you look hard enough you can find it for a good bit less...i have the dscf717 and im in love with it...sony for life...werd.


-oz

canon and pentax seem to be favorites in my household.

I'm in the market too, Shalome, so I've been browsing some information/comparison sites.

http://www.best-digital-camera-comparison.com/

http://www.dpreview.com/

Research your camera then go to http://www.nexttag.com
I visit there weekly to see how much the nikon coolpix 3100 is. They have soome customer reviews, and give you prices from many different online companies.