A570IS seems like it. I haven't looked into that model too seriously, but my new cam is Canon A630, which looks quite similar. The only con I can think of is that Canon A series LCDs are of so-so quality, and that is more important than usual in this case..

Stabilization is nice thing to have, but in good light and at wide end of a zoom it's more of a convinience than requirement..

Low-light/action capabilities... Well, they might be more important than you think, although that pretty much limits us to soon-to-be-discontinued Fujis (S6000, F31fd), neither boasts much of a LCD either, and they use more expensive xD cards. Also one point for s6000 is that it has wide-angle, a rare thing in non-professional digital cameras and rather useful.(Also s6000 is quite hefty, and right now rather expensive for your budget.).

You may need quite an extended supply of memory cards , or other means of storing photos for 3 months. 1 GB would be good for approx 200-250 7-8MP photos, I often shoot that many over a weekend. Ok, that's quite prolific, and most go to recycle bin afterwards, but you can't say for sure until you view shot on a big screen...

I second the Canon A570 IS. If your girlfriend wants to learn about photography it has all the controls she might want to graduate to in a non-DSLR camera. It also works fine as a P&S. It has decent zoom range and stabilization. The A710 has more zoom range and is also a good choice. The photographic quality is hard to beat in that price range..

She will want to carry a charger. Some are quite small. Alkaline batteries take about a third the photos as good NiMH batteries and inhibit free use of the camera IMO. Alkalines also get pricey if you take a lot of photos..

She will want plenty of memory unless she is taking a laptop or some sort of storage. I recently bought a 2Gb PQI card so I could use my Sandisk Ultra II in another camera. I expected the PQI card to be slower, but it turned out to be a little faster. That was confirmed by some tests I found online that said the PQI cards tested out a little faster than comparable Sandisk cards..

The reason I mention it is that they are cheap and seem to be competent. The 2Gb cards seem to be the cheapest per Gb. Forgive me if you arent in the US as my browser doesnt meet dpreviews requirements to access the profiles. But you can get 2Gb PQI cards for $20 delivered in the US. At that price she can take several. http://www.supermediastore.com/...ard-60x.html?WT.mc_id=bizrateMEYME-001-9977.

The A570 seems to average about 3Mb/photo at best quality. So she could fit 650 or so photos on each card. If she reviews them at night and deletes photos she doesnt want she should be able to come home with lots of good photos with a couple or three of those cards...

Thank you for your advice! I will look at the fuji's as well. The quality of the LCD might be quite important yes I can see that. You make a good point on memory capacity as well but that will invariably be a problem for a 3 month trip and I guess is not really dependent on the type of camera right? (Unless you want to settle on low quality images but stronger cams can do that as well.).

Again I appreciate the quick reaction..

Willem...

Thanks a lot for your extensive reply. I will look at the A710 as well then. I will definitely go for NiMH batteries, longer life so you need less and spare space and environment as well..

Your tip on memory is very useful, I live in the Netherlands actually but I am sure PQI sells their memory here too and will start looking for a relatively cheap store..

This is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for so many thanks again, I really wanted to find out a bit more before just going to the nearest store and randomly grab the camera with the best resolution/price ratio...

Well, they are related....

Different cameras use different card formats. And while you can get cheap and good SD cards, and, maybe CFs, formats like MemoryStick (Sony) or xD (Fuji/Olympus) are manufactured only by handful of firms, and qost quite significantly more..

Also, note that there are different flavors and generations of each card type, and not every cam supports every card, even if it fits in the slot. (you are unlikely to run into that if you buy new cam in that price range, but still something to keep in mind.)..