It is about what it is what Bub wants..?
Does he want a big and bulky camera with SLR looks and feel plus interchangeable lenses.
Or does he want something to take good (enough) digital photos.
In the latter case a smaller camera MIGHT be nicer to have with and use.
I just forgot my Sony digicam home when we left for Tenerife and bought another camera from there. I took a Panasonic Lumix but not the big one with Leica name on the glass. I believe this is Leica, too but named Lumix for the reason to make a cheaper price setting only. Leica may have their hands in design of these cameras even more broadly. My camera has a dark gray composite body and it is so sturdy that it does not even make a tiniest sound or bend at all when I try to twist it. Just nothing. VERY stiff body indeed.
The model is Lumix DMC-LZ2 and it is like a smallish range finder body with 5 Mpix sensor and 6X zoom lens (37-222mm equiv.) with the MEGA O.I.S. optical stabilizator. This camera is just unbelievable in use. We were in a jungle type zoo and I took very close photos by 24X zoom (optical+digital). By hand and by using support. 6X optical is easy to take by hand with the O.I.S.
It is not optically perfect (for bokeh) but for a small digital camera it is splendid IMHO. You can reach things from far away and make them close photos easily. I lacks viewfinder, however and only has the LCD display on back. That is the worst drawback. This camera is very fast to start, stop and use. Very nice thing is that you can fix the exposure and focus by pushing the trigger half way - it is THE thing I have desired from my Nikon SLR's for the digicams and now I got it.
I paid only 240 euros incl the half giga Kingston memory card. Cheap as a cake.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasoniclz2/
I took also some B/W photos to try it. Look at the fabric's grain on the cap reproduced evenly on the whole surface of the cap plus the decorative lines curving! Not too bad for the price.
Oz