good point and shoot

hi all ,
my sister in-law asked me what camera she should buy for a holiday cruise around the greek islands she is going on , she is no professional but she wants a good camera but not a too expensive one , obviously i reccomend canon , but what make , give me a few suggestions.
dave

She'll need a wide angle available since the streets will be crowded and are very narrow. The SD800 IS has about as wide a zoom (28-105 35 mm equiv.) as you're going to find, as well as IS. Most, if not all, of the rest of the lineup start around 35 mm equiv.

cheers jon

If she'll be taking a lot of photos from the ship, consider the SD700 with it's longer telephoto lens. SD800 (28 - 105mm/equiv) SD700 (35 - 140mm).

It's not a straight point and shoot but the Canon A710-IS is another option. It has a 6x zoom (35 mm - 210 mm zoom lens).

Whatever the prefered focal length, do get a camera with Image Stabilization. If she shoots from the deck, especially video, the continuous IS can be very effective.

I was in Greece last October; believe me, you want a wide while in some of those towns and you won't be doing an awful lot of (satisfactory) long tele shots. I was about 2/3 with my 5D and the 15-30 and 24-70 lenses to about 1/3 with the 20D and 70-200; most of those 20D shots were on the mainland.
Attached is a street in Mykonos, at 24 mm.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Now I'm a bit torn (not to threadjack) as I'm heading to Jamaica this summer and wondering about bringing a 30D with 17-40L and the SD800. I'm tempted to just leave the 30D and putter around with the SD800 (dumping things to the P-3000 for storage). Maybe add the underwater housing for some beach/snorkeling time. Should I bring one or both?

I'd take both. The DSLR is much more flexible with RAW (and better quality I guess) than the SD800.

I took DSLR(s) and the A620 to Greece. And used them all.

Yeah, both gives me more flexibility. I know there's some gorgeous landscape/ocean scenery that I hate to miss if I left a camera back home.

I just bought a PowerShot A550 for $150 on sale at Office Depot. Its a pretty nice camera, and your aunt doesnt need a $300+ camera to take good pictures on vacation. The A550 is very impressive to me, great quality photos. It has a wide lens which would come in handy.

I'll put in my vote for the SD 800 IS. I just bought one for my wife and it is one sweet little camera.