You guys have not considered the
Nikon Coolpix P80,, its a great camera,, brought it for 22.95K from authorised nikon dealer with two years warranty.
Features:
18X optical zoom with vibration reduction
10.1 Megapixels
ISO 64-6400
Full auto to full manual control
*www.nikon.co.in/productitem.php?pid=1238-ef493c1f28
The price which i have paid is from the authorised dealer. If you are getting it from the grey market, im sure you'll get it for around 16-17K
Or, if you still prefer a canon, then check out the
Canon S5 IS,,, still a good one..
Or a
sony H50
I have considered the above three models, P80, S5 IS and H50,, finally decided on the nikon P80,,,
pros:
great optical zoom, vibration reduction is great,, ISO levels are large, and the option of full auto to full manual (you can control the exposure, the shutter speed, the ISO etc etc)
cons:
(other than this two cons, i find the nikon better than the rest)
compared to the Sony H50, the burst shooting mode can shoot only 13 images, while in sony H50, you can f**king shoot upto 100 images in the burst shooting mode
battery is nikon battery, while the canon is 4 AA batteries, which is great coz you can buy it from any department store,, - for AA batteries, i recommend Camelion Ni-MH AA rechargeable batteries, with 2500mAH,, comes at around 800 with the charger
and if you want to shoot at night
with absolutely no light (0 lumens), you can shoot with Sony H50 - gives a decent result
As for D-SLRs like, Nikon D series, D40, D40x, D50, D60 or Canon EOS series, they are
1. expensive
2. require lenses
3. careful handling is required, especially to keep it away from dust
4. but they give excellent pictures and you can shoot in RAW mode
the above, P80, S5 or H50 dont require you to buy any extra lenses, so its good if you want to invest once and dont want to invest on it again and again,, and believe me, the lenses are expesive
keeping it clean is very crucial and in dusty environment like india, that is tough
And with all the camera body (camera kit) and the lenses and flash and batteries, its very bulky to carry around
So, i would suggest you settle for a prosumer camera, all in one like the above, unless you want to turn pro one day and open a photo studio as a back up profession