Brand isn't that important really the big names are all good (I am not a big fan of the kodaks...) Make a list of what you need it to do, what you want it to do, and then find the handful of models that match your needs and god play with them at the store shoot some frames and that them home and look at them and decide what you like. What feels good in your hand what has menues that make sense to you. Download the manual and read it through on the models that make the cut revisit them and pick one. There is no camera that is everything to everybody.
Alex