My suggestion would be the sony cybershot series. Its great for users who are enthusiastic about taking pics and stuff but arent uber leet at it ... also its good for other users who just want to point-click-take pics (simplicity)
Overall, if you arent a pro, imo the cybershot series is good. Only thing is that it has digital zoom and not optical zoom. Max pic size is also quite big (dont exactly remember how much tho ... google please
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Its got video and photography modes and lotsa presets/customisable things so its good for users of all levels ... i really like it