The lens is the most important feature for picture quality. I'd get a Panasonic with a Leica lens if I was buying a new digital camera.

They really are. I mean for the consumer market that isn't taking professional shots, quality lenses are very lacking. Also another thing to take notice of is the read/write speed. I bought a Panasonic SD 512MB card that is large enough to take high quality photos and do it at a rapid rate. You don't want something that takes a while to take the picture or to read off of it. I've even heard of some sandisk cards losing the data on them.

-Rudey
--The lower end Lumix cameras are definitely the best deals you will find...the higher end ones I don't think so since they're professional quality and compete with some serious companies on that.

For a 3 MP, I would recomend Minolta Dimage Xt Biz. It's a 3.2 MP

As for me, I'm saving up to buy Konica Minolta Dimage A2. It's an 8 MP camera. Cost you btw $800 to $1,100.