My dad wants to buy my mom a new camera for her birthday in November (I trust she won't be reading this post). He wants my advice, and I assume he would prefer to have most everything figured out for him with a simple "Which of these 2 do you like?" to be left with. When I asked about the price range, he said roughly $500-$600, but he could probably go up or down.

Here is where it gets tricky. I was thinking about recommending one of those $500 megazoom point-and-shoots, but I was talking to my mom the other day about her old SLR (a Minolta, I think) and she said that I should invent someway to make a card slot on it (basically make it digital). She likes to have rather good lenses, but doesn't want to shoot film on a regular basis and doesn't want to buy a whole new stock of lenses.

I could recommend the old Digital Rebel from some discount place, which would fit into that price range with no additional lenses besides the kit, or I could find a nice point-and-shoot. If she got the Rebel, then we could exchange memory cards and lenses when I get my 20D, but if she got a point and shoot, she would have it and be done (not have to worry about all the extra gear) with simplicity to spare.

Any advice?