Digital Camera Funtime

Unless you're either really serious or seriously cheap, I'd suggest buying the smallest camera that you can afford. You'll find yourself using a camera that fits in your pocket a lot more than an average-sized one.

The current-model Canon Elph and Casio Exilim cameras are all excellent...they have metal bodies, big screens (though the screen quality of the Exilims isn't going to win any awards), and good lenses and image sensors. The Nikon Coolpix S5 is another nice small camera, too, though I really question the usefulness of its Wi-Fi feature. ^^;

Pentax used to make some really nice mint-tin sized Optios that, among other nifty features, had better color accuracy than Canon's main SLR of the time, the EOS 10D, but I'm not sure if they're still making small ones. Fuji makes a couple of little cameras that have really good low-light performance, and Sony's various W-series cameras are perfectly good all-arounders. Honestly, I don't think that you can go too wrong with any camera that meets your basic requirements unless you buy on cost and cost alone.

I wouldn't advise buying a Minolta unless you can get a big discount on one. While most of their digital cameras (except for the older slim Dimages) were perfectly good (if not quite up to the level of Canon, Nikon, and Fuji), they were bought out by Sony not too long ago, so warranty service might be a bit spotty. Most of Kodak's point-and-shoot cameras are pretty bad, too.

Jam it back in, in the dark.