One of the best bangs for the buck currently is the Nikon Coolpix 4300. It's a 4MP camera with a 3x optical zoom and a great macro mode. You should be able to get one for around $499. It has 3 exposure modes to choose from: 1-Auto- It's what it says, all auto. Just point and shoot. 2-Scenic- You can choose from 12 presets to get the bast image in almost any situation. 3-Manual- This is the exposure mode that allows you to tweak any aspect of the camera, including 3 light meters, a best shot selector, and white balance, as well as the actual exposure (shutter and aperature) of the camera. I shoot DSLR cameras because I need huge amounts of resolution and performance. So needless to say, I'm fairly picky. This was a camera I'm considering as my pocket camera because it's very good. As far as prints... look for anyplace that is using a Fuji Frontier machine. This is a digital processing unit that makes the best prints I've seen. I know many Ritz, Wolf, Walmart, and Costco stores use them already as well as the online printmakers, Shutterfly.com (which is owned by Adobe.) I hope this helps.