If you're looking to ease into the world of digital photography, wrap your hands and head around it before spending the big bucks, the Olympus D-535 Zoom fits the bill.
A 3.2 Megapixel "entry level" camera that remains true to the trustworthiness of the Olympus brand. That is, it's not cheap, flimsy or "almost obsolete" like some many inexpensive cameras tend to be. Cute as a button, it packs in the all the point & shoot essentials with solid, reliable technology and not much more. All the basics with surprisingly superlative results. It even comes with 12MB of internal memory that will hold goodly number of high quality picts or about eighty "web quality" shots or combinations thereof, as is; a complete package right out of the box.
It will also accommodate removable memory media cards (sold separately, of course) for more storage if you want it.
Runs off two AA batteries which go a fairly long way, unless you're using the flash incessantly, but even then it's pretty energy efficient--and if you're smart to use rechargeables, who cares?
Simple to use, familiar to hold and easy on the pocket book, the D-535 Zoom the quintessential entry point to digital snap-happiness.