digicam recommendations for youngsters

After years of begging for $$$, I now have some money to buy digicams for my photo students. Hooray! I would like some recommendations (although I know I'll lean ever so slightly to Nikon) for a compact camera that has a short shutter lag, and enough megapixels to get a decent 8 x 10 print. Macro is good, optical zoom is important.

Budget?? approx. $400 to $500 per. I'd rather spend more on better quality, and this will probably have to last years, like my trusty ol' film SLR's. (Yeah, right). Sturdy is good, as they tend to drop and abuse photographic equipment.

These will never see the ocean, so any ideas are welcome. To be used by teenagers that don't like to read manuals.

Cheers,

Marli

Sturdy- try Ikelite. I prefer the Canon cameras to Nikon. They offer more control. The other reason is that it's easier to adjust white balance and different modes. Nikon makes you go into menus to change anything.

In a month Ikelite will have housings for the Canon A610 and A620. Both have more than enough resolution for a nice 8x10 print.

How about the Nikon CoolPix 8400?

Review and pricing HERE

I agree about the menus, as I have a Coolpix 5700. However I like the idea of the 24mm on the 8700. Thanks for the ideas. No housings needed, these will be used for land photography only.

Cheers,

Marli

Costco has the Canon A95 for $398 right now - it's discontinued, but still a great little camera. And that's Canadian$$$ so you can afford even more of them!!!

Marli,

If durability is a concern, and manual controls are not, I'd look into the sport point and shoots like the waterproof Canon Elf series. These cameras would likely take a fall or two without problems whereas most of your consumer models will not. The side advantage of these sport models is you can introduce them to underwater photography inside a pool or through snorkeling. Anyway, just a few thoughts.