I am planning on buying my girlfriend's daughter a compact camera for her birthday, next month.

I'm not sure what to go for. Her sister bought a Sony CyberShot last year - she bought it with her own money and I took her to a local store and got her to play with about 6 or 7 cameras from Sony, Nikon, Canon and Olympus that looked good and were in her price range, she then chose the one she got on best with...

This time, it is for a birthday present, so I need to buy it before hand...

One of the photographers here recommended a Canon Ixos i95, I'll try and get a hands on with one shortly, but does anybody else have any recommendations? I'm looking at trying to come in at under €200.

I've used Canon before (SureShot S1 from around 2003) and a very old Camedia, but I haven't played much with modern compacts.

On a separate note, MediaMarkt are doing a €499 deal on a Nikon D40, with 17-55 and 50-200mm lenses, is that a good deal or should I be looking at a more current camera with a single lens as a starting point?

The D40 would be a great starting point if she's interested in photography, but not very convenient.
If, on the other hand, she wants something to slip in a bag and use on a night out with her friends, then something like the Ixus would be great.
(You could also flex your hack muscles and install this on it before hand. )

Is she at all serious about her photography? Then get the D40.
If she's more casual, then an Ixus would be my choice, but I'm sure others have their preferences.

I think it's two purchases/ideas for different people, Alex.

Edd

I can highly recommend the Nikon CoolPix 5100p.
I bought this for a friends birthday and had a bit of a sneaky play with it before sending it to them and it was a very good camera.
I didn't test everything out on it though, so you may want to check out reviews on it.
Here's a comprehensive review of the 5100 here.

Mark

Thanks Mark, I'll give it a look. And yeah Edd, the Nikon D40 was a thought for myself, as my Canon S1 is on the fritz (screen just shows red and black alternating lines) and My EOS500 film camera is aging a bit - and the Sigma zoom lens I have for it doesn't work on the EOS D range, at least not the consumer variants.

I wanted the Canon Ixus a couple of years back for Christmas, my parents couldn't afford it, but did get me a Samsung Digimax L80, which is a really nice camera. The only drawback is that it only has an LCD display, no eyepiece. One thing I really like is the rechargeable battery, unlike others which require you buy separate batteries (which of course could be rechargeable).

Using separate batteries was one of the things I really liked about my S1. I had rechargables, but if they ran out, I'd just pop into the nearest shop and buy 4 AA cells and carry on...

Good modern cameras use Lithium Ion batteries that last for ever. That ought to be a point you should look out for.

I'm not trigger happy, but it will last three and a half days of pretty constant snapping (I took ~1500 photos@5mp and maybe 10 minutes of film over the three and a half days).

The ixus series are amazing.

Got my ex a 7mp one for christmas and she's chuffed with it.

Very much point-and-shoot, all shots are well focused and have very little noise.

Cameras make great presents. I bought my other half one many years ago, and she’s still using it - it may be old and way below spec for the kind of camera it is today, but she enjoys using it. I bought her a Flip Video last year, and she uses that too - more than I thought she would too.

It’s a creative tool, and it can have the same effect as giving a kid a packet of felt tip pens and some paper.

I've got my eye on the Samsung WB500. I've found it for £191

Lithium Ion batteries degrade with time, regardless of whether they are regularly charged or not...

Anyway, ended up getting an Ixus 80IS, which was on offer at MediaMarkt. I wanted to get her the 10mp Ixus 90 or the Nikon, but they were both around the €200 mark and, having to service the car and get the tank pumped out meant the extra €60 wasn't available... She doesn't print, and looks at the images on a 1280x1024 display, so the difference between 8 and 10/12MP wasn't going to be an issue and €60 for the red-eye auto correction wasn't worth it.

It is a shame, I would like to have given her the better one, just bad timing...