I'm in the market for a new digital camera and I'm sure there are plenty of knowledgeable people here who would just love to help me pick one. Here's the problem....I'm not really sure of what I want/need. I'd like to get a bit more serious into photography, but at this point I am very amateur. Heck, I didn't even know what aperture really meant until a couple of days ago (as you can tell by the arch pic below). I'd like something that I can have with me all the time, but I don't know if that necessarily means it has to be pocket sized. I'd rather have a nice camera I can really learn on and take great pictures with over just a handy size.
I do know that I want it to be fast. Right now I have a 6ish year old Sony DSC s85. It was a nice camera when we got it, but it's just sluggish. I'd like something where you push the button and the picture is snapped without the 1 second pause in between. I take too many pictures of my kids, and by the time the picture is snapped they've moved on to something else. Also, I'd like a quick reset between pictures. I've tested a few out that have about a 4 second pause between pictures...I don't like that.
I saw a camera yesterday that had a macro/super-macro setting. I hadn't really thought about it before, but I'd like something like that. Is that a setting you need to look for, or can that just be done with manual adjustments?
I can't decide if I'd rather have a camera with AA batteries, or a charger type deal. My Sony has to be charged and usually what happens is that I go to take a picture and the battery is dead. AAs are easy to replace, but they probably don't last as long (although I'd get rechargeables anyway). Maybe a battery level indicator would be helpful so I knew when it was time for a charge.
I've been looking at Canon's mostly, but recently started looking at Fuji too. I'm interested in Nikon too.
So, I'm guessing I'll be getting a point and shoot, but I've seen some Canon digital SLRs online for around $450. That's a bit higher of a price than I was looking at, but maybe it would be worth it if it really was that much better. The high speed photo taking appeals to me especially.
So, with my very limited help here, does anyone have any comments or suggestions? Any specific aperture ranges, ISO ranges, or anything else I should specifically look for as a must-have?
Here are a few of my recent shots on my old camera. Like I said, I'm just starting to learn about photography, so this is all just auto settings at 4 megapixels.

























































