Sony has bought Minolta's digital camera business, so now Sony has some good ones. Panasonic uses Leica lenses, and Leica's didital cameras use Panasonic digital imagers, but at a more pleasing color temperature.
I personally think cameras with regular viewfinders are better. The digital screen on back of the camera is great to review and edit as you go, but it is often washed out, so you are limited in its usefulness. The regular viewfinder does not get washed out.
Higher pixel count makes for clear enlargements, also look for larger optical zooms, You can use a photoeditor on your computer or at a kiosk to zoom in and crop your photos after taking them to correct for bad camera angle, etc. digital zooms result in noisier pictures, my video camera digital zoom lets me zoom to a point where image in unviewable.
If you can, interchangable lens are a plus. I do not know how complicated a camera you want, point and shoot or prosumer.
What are the things that you do/don't like about your current camera?
