Jeffrey Stetz wrote:
Below $250, go for the Nikon Coolpix series mentioned above. For the
ultimate "cool" look and great pictures, see the Canon SD110, SD300, S410.
Don't forget to add the cost of a decent size memory card (although SD and
CF cards are very cheap these days).

I've got the S400 (direct ancestor of the S410, not that I can even
tell from the specs how they differ). I love it, although I'll admit
I havn't figured out how all the modes work yet.

It came with a 64 meg card, which I soon upgraded to a 256 meg card.
I immediately discovered that I had plenty of memory capacity, but
would run out of battery long before I filled the card :-)

So, my suggestion is if you add a bigger memory card, also budget for
the cost of some extra batteries. Canon wants $40-something for them,
but they're available from aftermarket sources for $10-12. I just
bought two from http://www.sterlingtek.com/. $9 each plus shipping
came to $25 for the pair. Sterling didn't claim any specific
capacity, but the ones that showed up are marked 1440 mAH.