Depends on what you are looking for. I used an Olympus 700 until it died at 13 months old (no extended warranty, was going to cost 2/3 of the cost of a new camera to fix it. It's in the closet if anyone needs parts...) Anyway, I woould have replaced it with an Olympus
C-740 or
C-750 , but they were not yet in the country. These are generally very nice cameras, with a 10x optical zoom. Very easy to use, produced great pictures.
Looking for a new camera with similar specs, the camera shop showed me a
Panasonic Lumix FZ1 . While only a 2 megapixel camera, it caught my attention for 3 reasons: it has a 12x optical zoom; the lens is a high quality Leica lens with included image stabilization; it is very reasonably priced - about $400 now. My biggest dislike is the proprietary battery - extras are about $55 a pop.
Just recently, Panasonic has upgraded this camera to a
FZ10 model . The upgrade now has 4 megapixels; the capability to have an exterior flash; a lot more manual control capability. It will be about $600. Not sure if this one is in the country yet. Based on my experience with the FZ-1, I would definitely look at this camera.
All these cameras are lightweight, well built ones. I don't think you could go wrong with any. Right now I tend to favor the Panasonic for the 12x xoom (equivalent to 35 - 420 on a 35mm lens) and for the built in image stabilization (very nice at the long lengths.)
Dave