[ScottH]

This reminds me of an exchange i had with a friend recently.
Friend: "Wow Scott. Your camera takes really good pictures."
Me: "No. I take really good pictures."

Its tru though. You can take great picture with a fairly inexpensive camera provided you know enough about photography as well as how to adjust the settings on your camera.
Ive got a Canon Powershot A540 that is a few years old now and Ive shot almost everyone of my shows and have gotten some great results. The things to look for are the different shooting modes. Full auto is nice and can sometimes give you what you want but most average auto modes were designed for mom taking the family photo at little billys first birthday. On the otherhand, full manual gives you all the options in the world, but unless you know exactly what to do with them in any given lighting situation (and have the time to set all of them during your photo call for every shot) that wont be helpful either. Some cameras (like mine) have a program mode. It allows you to set the iso, the white balance and the color mode and then adjusts the shutter speed and aperature automatically. This usually works best for me. Sometimes if i am taking action shots, ill take over shutter speeds and aperatures, but i prefer not to meddle too much with that (if you waste all your time tinkering with your camera, you miss all the good moments). If im really having action shot problems, I set it to multi shot and just hold the button down (it will shoot one shot/second until i release) theres bound to be a good shot in there somewhere.

Canon's newer versions of my cameras, like the PS A2000 sport more megapixels, longer zoom range, more iso settings, faster shutter speeds and alot more.

Thats just my experience with my camera. Im sure everyone will tout their own cam so you really have to do some shopping. (Spec sheets are your friends)

I cant stress enough: buy the biggest memory card you are willing to spring for!