I haven't looked at prices lately but for $500 she may need to drop back to the 3 megapixel range and consider how much money she needs to spend on extra batteries, memory cards, tripod, etc... It's a bummer to blow your budget on a nice camera and then not be able to afford the extras that make it a usable tool. I would recommend patience and research. Most of the cameras on the market seem to be pretty good but if skin tone and color are important, she needs to focus in that area and read the reviews from the sites mentioned above. When shopping, you really need to decide what are the most important features to the type of photography you want to do and then concentrate on getting the camera that does those things the best. Good luck.