I'm really pleased with my Canon Ti1. Now they offer the Ti2 and Ti3
, but I think the Ti1 is still available. It's probably more expensive than you want, but it takes beautiful pictures and movies (with sound). The battery is a Canon battery, but it has about a 500 picture charge capacity and I bought two additional ones that were not Canon branded for around $10.00 each? I got my camera at Costco and it came with an 18-55mm and 55-250mm lens pair. I've got a 16Gb SD card in it which gives me over 2300 still pictures capacity at the highest jpeg setting.
At the moment, I think Canon is really leading in photographic equipment. I'm sure the one Colby recommended is a good bet too.
- Jack