Like others say, it depends on what you are trying to do.
Me, I just need an optical record of things. I purchased a Kodak C433 a few (or more) years ago and have been very pleased with it. It has a 3x optical zoom and a 5x digital zoom. It uses 2 AA batteries, so I don't have to worry about keeping it charged. With a 2 Gig SD card and a setting of 2.1 megapixels (that's all I need and may be too much) I can take over 3,000 photos.
What I really like is the video feature. Sometimes a short video (with sound) is worth 200 (or more) pictures.
For job site records, I don't think you can get a better value (yes, it's cheap :grin: ).