What's the SIMPLEST P&S Camera?

[RexK_Cozumel]

I have always been a fan of canon powershot cameras they are easy to use and make some nice images for the price. Although I think Nikon makes better dSLRs

[JodyJo]

I use a Kodak Easyshare Z612...can still be found, I bought it 3 years ago. It does have the bells and whistles, but not too many that she can't do it. If all she wants to do is P&S, she can. It has a 6mp, 10X zoom, so IF she wanted to, she can zoom quite far. It has a large screen on the back, in case she doesn't want to use the small view finder. It runs about $250....good luck

[dlaf]

What is your MIL going to do with her Polaroid?

[JoesPhotos]

Originally Posted by dlaf

What is your MIL going to do with her Polaroid?

Knowing her she will probably toss it if she can't find film, or let one of the grandkids have it as a toy.

[kansasA]

I own two Canon Powershot Elphs and even my husband can run my old one (that's saying a lot), an SD900, it's pretty simple. It takes great pictures to boot. I just bought a Rebel XSi to replace my SD950IS and have to say I'm a real Canon fan. With the Powershots you can just set it to auto mode and show her the on/off button, and if you buy her a big enough card she can save the uploading for you

[stnair]

My first Digital Camera was a Fujifilm A340. 4.1MP. 3x zoom. Its only got an on/off button, record/play button and shutter release. No other controls to fiddle with. Just aim the camera, set the zoom (if you want to) by flicking a button up or down and shoot your image. As simple as that.

Also it takes very nice pictures especially in daylight. Uses AA batteries. I think A340 is out of production, but newer version from fuji are available.

[Alexandru]

Once upon a time there was the simplest camera ever - Samsung Digimax S700 with a broken LCD and no viewfinder.

Broken LCD means that no options could be set (white balance, ISO, resolution, shutter speed etc) unless the camera was connected to a TV. Broken LCD also means that batteries could last a long time.

This camera was operated with sound not sight, and so it was perfect for mother-in-laws who usually have great hearing. Changing the zoom required putting the camera against the ear to listen how far to zoom, and to check if the camera was not in macro mode by mistake required half-pressing the shutter button to hear if the lens motor makes a long sound for macro or a short sound for no macro.

Believe it or not I used this camera for almost one year and I loved it! I took over 25000 pictures with it. Most of them were bad (blurred, heads cut, out of focus), but there were a few good ones in there sometimes. Example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alex_st...7594526775470/ (ok maybe that is not really a good picture).

My point is: any camera is good, and any camera is as simple as you want it to be. Any camera can take pictures by pointing and pushing a button. You can buy the most expensive DSLR and use it in Auto mode, and that is a simple camera. The rest (RAW, F-stops, white balance, face detection etc) is just extra technology which can be ignored by the mother-in-law who just wants a simple camera.