Affordable digital cameras

I bought a Kodak cx6330 about a year ago for $180 cdn, its 3.2 megapixels, 3x optical zoom and I've seen better cameras recently for the same price. If your just looking for a point and shoot camera, something similar should be fine. I've found Kodak digital cameras are very user-friendly compared to other brands.

I have several Nikon CoolPix cameras and after breaking the latest one, I decided to purchase my first: CoolPix 775. You will not find it in the shops, but e-Bay will provide you with one for around $70. It's a fantastic little camera, perfect for web photos, giving great results on a screen and provided you have a decent printer, gives fantastic prints. Only 2 megapix but I'm not certain more is required if you are only using pics for web purposes... It features a 3X optical zoom which I find good enough for my braille scale models.

For what you're willing to spend, you should be able to find a VERY good mid-range camera. Depending whether it's US or CAD currency, ofcourse. Either way, I can suggest taking a look at Canon and Kodak, as IMHO they have some very good digicams and are 'affordable'.
WHat you want is a minimum of 3 megapixels, and some decent onboard memory. Also, take a look at what kind of memory peripherals the camera will take. For example, Sony camera's use Sony's own proprietary memory sticks, which is a good way to rob you of even more money, so go with a camera that takes generic standards memory.

You need to tell us which country you're in, the price of cameras varies enormously. I recently got a Panasonic Lumix 5 & it's just great. It was about AUS$900 in Oz but we have some outrageous duties & taxes on such things, so I think it'd be much cheaper if you're in the US. It has a Leica lens w. 12x optical zoom, which is huge. All of the good overrides available if you want to tweak the shot.

I love my Canon PowerShot A70, and it was only about 34,000 yen (about $323 USD).
It's over a year old now, so I think you can get them even cheaper.
It's got a great macro focus feature, and takes really good up-close model shots (even with a ham-fisted gorilla like me using it).

Thanks for all the advice! ( in the USA here, btw)

I have just got the Kodak DX6490 4mp 10xoptical zoom plus a macro mode that gets as low as 1". A very impressive camera, however from ebay you could not go past a Kodak DC290, excellent camera and my mainstay until upgrading to the DX6490

Cheers

Mike

Just thought I'd point out this website as well: http://www.dpreview.com/ If your lookin at a specific camera, you may wanna check what kinda reviews its gotten here.