[wildman]

She needs a SIMPLE to use camera that is known to produce great images.

Get her a used K5 with the kit lens and let her fire away.
She's only 76 not brain dead.

Advice from a 76 year old.

[Aaron28]

Wow, you all make valid points I never thought about. She used an Olympus OM-10. For her it is the learning curve of the computer and camera menu's getting too complicated too fast. I guess I just need to taker her to Best Buy or Target and let her handle some of the newer cameras instead of guessing what she might like.

yeppers

[csa]

Agreed; let her hold a few cameras and decide which SHE feels comfortable with! At 76, she's not "over the hill", just getting her second wind!

Advice from a soon to be 74 year old!

[reeftool]

I jumped into digital in my late 50's after shooting film for many years. My first digital was a Fuji P&S which produced awesome results. I soon decided on a DSLR and naturally went with Pentax since I already owned a Spotmatic and some Takumar lenses. My first was a K10D. I adjusted to it rather quickly. PP was a bit of a learning curve. I started with the free Picasa and moved on to Lightroom o few years later.

I agree with the others that recommend her holding a few cameras and making a decision. If she's a bit intimidated by computers, she will be even more intimidated by layers of menus that most compact cameras have. The thing I loved about my K10D was that I could simply adjust the aperture and shutter speed with the 2 dials and pretty much use it like an old fashioned manual camera. I still use my K5 that way. All those fancy features pretty much go to waste. The only time I ever scroll through the menus after my initial settings is to format a new card. I think she will likely be more comfortable with a viewfinder and as we get older, holding a camera out in front doesn't work too well. It's difficult to steady and also see.

[robthebloke]

K- s1 (or k-s2) and most importantly, a DA35 f2.8 macro lens to go with it (judging by her interests, she'd be best served by a macro lens, the camera body is somewhat secondary to that)

[gaweidert]

I got my wife a Sony Cyber-shot DSC HX300 camera for Christmas. It does shoot RAW, but the image quality is excellent. $378 at B&H right now. Very light and capable shooter. Awesome macro mode too. Manual is sketchy so you would have to teach her a bit. 24-1200 equivalent zoom should cover just about everything she needs. Image quality is very good too.

If money is no object, then the Sony Cyber-shot DSCRX10 is the way to go. It is $998 but has built in WiFi and can capture images in RAW too. It is a pretty awesome all in one camera.

[rrstuff]

Olympus E-PM2, because of touch screen interface.