CAMERAS: Send halp! Temoo and rapperman i choose you!

[Bodzilla]

My GF's birthday is in a few days and i want to get her a camera, it needs to be digital and it needs to have a heap of options for either close ups, black and whites, (exposed shutter??? Massive contrasts) and be generally good for playing around with for an amatuer.

What do you guys recommend?
Price range around about 400

Will push it further if it's worth it.

[Phopojijo]

Black and White shots should NOT be done in camera, regardless of the type of camera. Shoot in colour, and use GIMP or something to convert colour-to-black and white.

That way you can weigh red/green/blue/(etc if in photoshop) differently when you make them black and white. Say if you want the blue sky to be darker than the clouds to increase contrast.

http://docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-colors-channel-mixer.html (look at the Greyscale checkbox)

[Futzy]

Pretty much any decent point and shoot does all of that now.

[Syuusuke]

IF that's 400USD you can find a good point and shoot (or if you're GF is adventurous a used SLR film + lens????? mb not)

I'm not weaper mon nor tim0 but I've seen some good PnS cameras:
Canon Powershot a590 IS for about 200
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ38 is like an SLR but it's a point n' shoot - about $400

now the Canon G11, I've only read reviews but it seems decent - runs for about $500 though.

Only suggestions, timo and man repaer should be able to help out more