Almost Officially Dead

My much-loved Sony Cyber-shot camera is in its final death throes. I tried to turn it on this morning to photograph some beads, and while there was the familiar chime and faint mechanical whirring of the lens sliding out, the LCD screen has gone completely grey. I have fiddled and finagled with it - changing settings, replacing batteries and spending countless hours online trying to Google trouble-shoot a solution. I have come to the conclusion that there is one simple, if not exactly cheap, solution: replace the camera.

So now the question is, "What kind of camera should I buy?". I absolutely love Sony cameras, buuuuuuuuuut... this makes the third one that has died on me in the past 10 years. I have been accused of being a Pollyanna, and I probably am to a certain extent, but even I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't time to try out a different manufacturer's wares. I'm leaning towards Canon, but I know almost nothing about the brand. For the time being, I'm using my Mother's little Canon Elph - a cute, little bitty thing about the same size as my cell phone. So far, it seems to be almost idiot-proof (a good thing for me), but I'm finding that I'm underwhelmed with the pictures I'm getting. The macro setting is okay, not great - just okay. And the color saturation is just kinda "eh". I find I have to do a LOT of fiddling in Photoshop in order to make the beads look right. I suppose I've been spoiled by the Sony, because I'm used to doing practically nothing (aside from cropping, re-sizing and a tiny bit of sharpening) in order to have usable images. Plus, and I know this is probably silly, I don't like the feeling of a tiny camera. They feel so...fragile, you know? Like one good drop off the counter and then "Sayonara!". My own camera has had a rather rough and tumble life, most recently taking a ride on the top of my bonehead brother's car and falling off onto the driveway. Which was a reminder of why I make it a rule to never lend my camera to anyone. (When your camera is a major part of your livelyhood, you shouldn't pass it around willy-nilly. Would a person with an office job let someone else take off with their laptop or their Blackberry? I think not. )

And so the camera search starts!!