Advice on Camera for the Wife

[peejman]

What is holding her back with the current camera? That's the thing to address. Lot's of folks assume that if only they had the right camera they'd be as good as a professional photographer. But they won't, just like the right golf clubs won't make you a PGA player.

The thing holding people back is almost never the equipment but usually personal skill. I'd invest couple of hundies in a photo class so she can see what she really needs.

Excellent advice! A local camera store (not a big electronics store) should be able to recommend classes. Sometimes the local community college offers night classes in photography. Two friends who I consider good photographers are currently taking classes at UT and they've been very happy with all they've learned.

So, looking at the Sony higher end point and shoots, specifically the Sony Cyber Shot DSC-HX100V. Any opinions on this one?

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Cyber-Shot-DSC-HX100V-Digital-Vario-Tessar/dp/B004H8FND0

I have no experience with that one, but I'm sure it's a good camera. The point/shoot cameras tend to be more "plug and play", but for the same money, you could get a very nice, used DSLR which is much more flexible and upgradeable.

Don't be lured in by huge MegaPixels... that won't make bad pictures look good. All it does is take up space on your hard drive. 5-8MP is good enough for "photo quality" 8x10 prints. A single 10MP jpeg image can be 5+ MB in size. Do the math and you'll see it adds up quickly. 12+MP is needed only for poster sized prints. If you get fancy and start shooting in RAW format, the files can get positively huge.

This is a good resource for comparisons... Digital Cameras: Digital Photography Review, News, Reviews, Forums, FAQ

Nice used stuff:

Used Nikon D3000 SLR Digital Camera with 18-55mm VR Lens 25462

Used Canon EOS Rebel XSi SLR Digital Camera Kit 2756B003 B&H

[BLACKVANDRIVER]

Has a choice been made?

[Good_Steward]

Not yet. Still touching and trying as many as she can. Thanks to all for the recommendations.