I am most definitely NOT an expert or anything resembling it, but I did the rounds of the review sites for a camera for my daughter's 21st birthday, and without getting into details, it appears to me that just like computers, the value for the average person is to be found in superseded models.
New models are being released on to the scene in confusing numbers, but unless you need or particularly want the higher ranges of technology, a 2 Megapixel camera released twelve months or even more ago does exactly the same job as the latest ones and a bit of judicious shopping around can save you hundreds of moolas. Stan Sted's Canon is a good example.
The big advantage is that digital cameras produced twelve months ago are still out there as produced because they can't be modified on the floor and have their price increased, as opposed to computers.
Shop around!