I'm asking for money for christmas this year, in order to buy a digital camera. I'm looking for opinions...

I want one with about 5 mega pixels, much more is a waste in my mind, decent zoom and reasonably (though not ultra) compact. I also want decent manual controls and a macro mode. My problem is that the things I want most in the camera, aren't mentioned by manufacturers: things like lens quality, how well it copes with interference in night-time shots and how close up the macro mode will allow. Please advise.

My new sony slimline cybershot T5 is waiting under the christmas tree. It's 5.1 mega pixels, is less than 1cm deep, and apparently (according to a consumer magazine) has an excellent lens. It doesn't have a viewfinder but the screen is something like 6cm square. It also apparently has different modes for different lighting situations. I'll let you know what it's like!

I have read that although the megapixel-ness and such are fairly standard, it's a good idea to buy an established camera brand (e.g., kodak, fuji, etc.) because of the lens - often brands that aren't specifically camera makers have poor lens quality.

One tip ... Make sure it takes a recharge battery, otherwise they chew up batteries for fun and you end up throwing money away.

What's your budget? I'm also looking at getting one (just after christmas) and have this model in mind for a little over £200.

Also factor into the price a memory card because although cameras will be advertised with batteries that will let you take 400 pictures or something, the vast majority come with memory cards that store about 3 pictures on them.

Get the highest optical zoom that you can. Many cameras will advertise a high zoom ratio, but in many cases it's mostly digital which will significantly degrade picture quality.

Just bought a Cannon A520. I think it is 4 mega pixel. And some 4x zoom thing. I am not to sure on the specs. The wife tells me it works great.

Aelia good point about the memory card. I also bought a 512mb card. So I know can take over a 100 pics correction the wife. ;)