Hun, I'm not a photographer and I wanted the camera to do the work for me, and I've invested in a SLR canon 550 D camera, it came with twin lens. Best $1100 I've spent (it might be a but more that what you want to spend). It takes awesome pictures, simply stunning. The nikon coolpix camera I got for my birthday 6 years ago was $550 with only 6.2 megapixels and 5 x zoom, it's like chalk and cheese. The canon 550D is a professional camera but very easy to use and you can even get them for around $780 on ebay brand new (it will most likely be from China but the camera I got was through an Aussie dealer but still imported from China, I just wanted the Aussie 12 month warranty). It is obviously bulkier than the smaller point and shoot cameras but for an o/s holiday or special occasions or if you just like taking nice pictures, the canon is fabulous.