Manual focusing is only really worth it on an SLR that has a focus ring in the viewfinder. And AF is so good, there'* no real benefit to MF...

Megapixels aren't the most important thing in cameras, Sensor size and the lens are the best things to look at for image quality.

^werd. I rarely use manual focus on my Canon A75, pushing buttons to focus really turns me off after shooting SLR. My digital has the 9-zone "Ai-AF" system - which I find is useless. I turn it off, and instead use "spot" focusing - find my point of focus, put it in the centre of the frame, depress shutter release halfway, focus, compose, click.

I love playing with the manual focus and adjustable focus point on my canon S3IS. I've taken some really cool pictures.

With as bad as my eyes are now, auto focus is a must for me.

Also, people making recommendations for stuff like manual focus, buttloads of MPs (aka, me ), etc. need to remember the difference between "neccessary" and "necessary to me"...

Spot focus FTW. I don't care for the multi-zone focusing. It never focuses where I want it to.

Any photographer will tell you manual focus must be mandatory on a camera. Just cause you will mainly use it for stuff that might not require it, doesn't mean you will ever need it.

Megapixels, Megapixels, again, this is not really important. If you are looking to make your own prints at home, consider anything up to 4MP. Anything bigger than that and your printer will chop off anthing more than a 8X11. Unless you opt for a bigger and more expensive printer. You could go all out and get a 15MP, send your prints in to be professionaly printed and sent back to you. Expensive, yes, but it takes out the fun of doing it yourself.

I guess I should elaborate on what I'm planning to use this for. It'* really just a camera for taking pictures of my car, friends, parties, etc.

You can still print 8x11 with a high MP camera without a crop. Most cameras come with more than 5MP these days because sensors are cheaper to build.

Manual focus only works well on a full-frame 35mm bodies and up. That even excludes SLR'* like mine with a smaller than 35mm sensor. It'* pointless to manual focus on my camera because it is so difficult with the viewfinder ... this is even worse for the small digi-cams.

But when buying a camera, factor everything in: MP, sensor, zoom range, overall image quality, ease of use, etc.

I've been doing shooting for everything but portrait work at this point in time, but manual focusing on anything but a SLR is is really not accurate. As stated above the only way to focus on a P&* is to use buttons. The chance you'll get the perfect focus on a button is slim. I've tried it once with my Fuji SLR wanna be (it uses the zoom buttons as focus in an alternate mode).

Obviously an SLR will be able to be MF, but with the lack of a focus ring in the viewfinder, the only way to know if you're in focus or not is for the camera to sense with it'* AF sensor, and turn a light on/beep.

The only time i could see any real benefit to manual focus would be in low lighting situations, where you can't have an AF assist go off due to what you're shooting.

Yea, now that someone mentioned zoom. Don't fall for that 6Xoptical, 1 gazillion digital. The higher the optical #, the better. Digital zoom is only what the camera thinks its seeing. My camcorder has 900X digital zoom and it looks like **** at about 800X. Even with a tripod.