The key to good digital picture once you've gotten beyond the Mpixel, lens zooms and features is it's low light fidelity. By low light I don't mean shooting in dark or near dark. What I mean is, given a composition there are bright areas and dark areas in the picture. The ability of the camera's sensor and image processing sophistication of those dark areas will determine the final stored image being a 'good' image to a 'great' image. Most cameras take good pictures when the subject is well lit and there are no shadows in the picture. But unless you are in a studio that's unavoidable.
The long and short of it is that Canon has the edge when it comes to sensor and image processing capabilities. I would whole heartily recommend Canon cameras especially for the casual users who do not/can not control lighting in their pictures like the pro's do.
The Canon model you should get will determined by the price point you are looking and the size you are willing to put up with.
