Snap, Snap, Pop and Crackled!

It's been well over a month now since the day I was walking Sammy, camera in hand, and, as I stopped to snap a picture, Sammy jerked hard on the leash causing me to lose my grip on my camera. The camera then fell to the ground, landing on the dirt along side the road and since it seemed to be what I would call a "soft fall" as I bent down to pick it up I was hoping that no damage had been done to my trusty little Kodak.

Unfortunately, because when this happened and the camera hit the ground, the lens was out, open, and of course, what with old Murphy and his law ya know, that's the side that then had hit the ground. And sadly, damage had occurred then too as the lens was jammed, slighly cockeyed, immovable to get it to extend out or to retract back into the camera body.

I was sick when I saw what had happened. I've been trying to locate a place, locally -or fairly local to me -like maybe in State College or perhaps as far away as Altoona -where I might be able to get someone to look at my camera and tell me if it can be repaired and if so, would it be priced reasonably enough with enough of a guarantee then too that the camera would work again the way it had before this little accident.

Lots of folks have told me that in today's throw-away society and mentality, when problems or accidents occur, the least expensive route is often to just replace the item and not even bother checking on getting things repaired.

Recently, I was given a gift -a Visa gift certificate -and this has had me doing a little searching online for digital cameras -trying to find the best camera for the best price.

I really liked the camera I had but I also like the camera that my son, older daughter and I had bought back in January for younger daughter's birthday present. They are almost identical units but I think my camera had 8 pixels and my daughter's has 10 or 12 pixels -don't remember those numbers exactly right now. Things like pixels and what zoom power a camera has are just numbers to me because I really am not that knowledgeable about digital cameras -or any camera for that matter -and so don't understand fully then the value of having whatever of these features on a camera.

All I wanted when I bought the camera I had -which cost me $149 two years ago in December when I purchased it -was a nice little camera to use to take pictures mainly of my family, especially the grandkids and that I could then download those pictures right away to files on my computer! That this particular camera also had a video feature was just an added bonus to my way of thinking. And when I found the camera we purchased for Mandy for only $100 and it had the same basic features but with a higher pixel count and I think a little bigger zoom power too, I was happy because, knowing how much I had been enjoying my camera, I figured Mandy would appreciate that and then some too.

I've been searching online for the best prices now on a camera as much like mine or the one we gave to Mandy with the ease of operation that both of these units have (had, in my camera's instance) available and now I'm getting really confused. I've seen camera's like mine listing for anywhere from $109 to $129 -as opposed to the $149 I had paid for mine. I've seen some other cameras similar to mine and to Mandy's priced as low as $79 too!

How do I determine then which is the best unit for me to purchase? The cameras I have been looking at are all made by Kodak -haven't looked at any of the other brands simply because I guess I've always truly been a fan of having "Kodak moments" I suppose. So how do I figure out which unit, which model, is the best for me to get to replace my pretty little red camera which was an M853 and Mandy's camera I think is an M340 or something like that number? (She has it with her at the moment so I can't pick it up to check the model number there.)

No matter what I select, what fancy features it may contain, I'm never going to be using this camera for other than just quick shots, no fancy set-ups, nothing along a "professional" line of use cause I don't have a natural talent for photography, a good eye type thing ya know.

I just want one that will give me the most for my money and the same amount of enjoyment I had experienced with the one I had before.

Any suggestions? And, any explanations too on the various features and how to compare them would be much appreciated as well.