(FORTUNE Magazine) – Anyone interested in buying a camera these days will quickly figure out that there's good news and bad news in store. On the one hand, there are a lot of options out there. On the other hand, there are a lot of options out there.

In other words, to go camera shopping today--even if you just want a straightforward point-and-shoot model, nothing fancy--is to be overwhelmed. In what appears to be a determined effort to equip every man, woman, and child with a full assortment of image-making devices, the world's camera makers have filled the pipelines with a bewildering array of new equipment. At one end, Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, Agfa, and others are doing a booming business in the one-time-use, $10 to $15 plastic-and-cardboard cameras that wedding guests and white-water rafters are having all sorts of fun with. At the other, $30,000 will get you one of those digital monsters the wire service photographers are now using to shoot Super Bowls and the like.

In between--well, the picture is just as blurry. The shelves are sagging with literally hundreds of modestly priced, compact 35mm cameras with features that once were available only on high-end products. Plus there's a new kid on the block: Advanced Photo System (APS) cameras, which use a new kind of film designed for foolproof pop-and-load simplicity. The film is processed by automated equipment that makes on-the-money printing decisions based on information encoded on each exposure.

There's more. While the top-of-the-line single lens reflex (SLR) cameras the pros lug around start at about $2,500 and soar upward, Nikon, Canon, and other bigtime producers have been moving downstream with high-performance SLRs with interchangeable lenses and other bells and whistles that sell in the $300 to $500 range. Meanwhile, some digital cameras--which everyone who knows his way around a chip is suddenly producing and everyone involved in photography is talking about--have also started to dip below the $500 mark (see box, next page).

What all this means is that there's something out there for everyone. But it also means that one size doesn't necessarily fit all. Before you run out and buy that camera, you've got to figure out what you want to do with it, how much you're prepared to spend, and how photographically sophisticated you are. (Believe it or not, large numbers of shrink-wrapped digital cameras, heavily promoted as a filmless product, are being returned to the computer stores they came from because customers say they can't figure out where to put the film.)

Say, for example, that what you want is something pretty straightforward: an easy-to-use camera that won't shortchange you on quality prints, for a reasonable amount of money. And to take it one step further, let's say you need to get this camera now--the approaching holidays are prime picture-taking time, after all--so you can't wait for the next round of technical advances and price cuts. As it turns out, this frantic camera market is good for you. There are some strong choices, if you can just clear away the distracting clutter to find them. Here's how to do just that.

Let's start with the APS cameras. This new puppy, which will turn two years old in February, was designed to take the worry out of picture making. APS film comes in a sealed, leaderless cassette (meaning there's no flap of film sticking out that has to be spooled through the camera, as with a traditional 35mm) that can't be misloaded. The negatives, which are returned in the same cassette, can't be scratched or easily lost. And when the negatives come back, they are accompanied by a four- by seven-inch contact sheet that makes it a snap to keep track of your pictures and to order extra prints in panorama, wide-angle, or traditional sizes.

The actual APS image is about 60% of the size of a 35mm image, which means APS film can go into small cameras that slide easily into a pocket or purse. The breakthrough here is that this has been achieved without sacrificing quality, thanks to better emulsions and some other technological wrinkles. The film contains a magnetic strip that records exposure data and other information for each picture, which means automatic-processing equipment can make whatever printing corrections are needed to produce sharp, colorful prints.

Sounds good, but does it work? I took about a dozen APS models for a test drive to find out. The results: pretty impressive. The cameras were easy to use, and the prints looked great.

But before going any further, there are some caveats. APS film is more expensive to process than 35mm. Mystic Color Lab, a mail-order firm in Connecticut, charges $11.95 to develop and print a 25-frame roll of APS film, vs. $8.95 for a comparable roll of 35mm. At the New York City lab I use, it's $15.99 for APS, $12.21 for 35mm. Also, while more and more places are equipped to process APS film, it's still not as ubiquitous as 35mm processing, and you can rarely get same-day service. Finally, APS film is now available only in a color-print version. All of this will likely change, of course, if the technology catches on, more labs invest in APS equipment, and film companies roll out APS color-slide and black-and-white film.

Which APS to buy? I had a lot of fun--and lots of success--with Kodak's Advantix 4700ix (street price: roughly $200), an auto-focus, auto-exposure unit with a motorized 30mm to 60mm zoom lens, a flip-up flash that reduces red eye, and a built-in picture sensor that sends warnings to an LCD panel along with instructions that tell the photographer how to correct a problem before it happens. The Canon ELPH (about $300) gets the prize for packaging. Equipped with a 24mm to 48mm power zoom that tucks itself into an ultracompact stainless-steel body (Canon's engineers were told to make a camera the size of a cigarette pack, and they did it), the ELPH also offers an optional infrared remote control and sophisticated flash options. At the bargain-basement level, a bare-bones Fuji Endeavor 10 that gets the job done can be had for about $50.

Don't want to be a pioneer? Not to worry. In the traditional 35mm arena, compact point-and-shoot cameras have come of age. The array of features on those supposedly low-end cameras has gotten to be astonishing. We're talking auto focus, auto exposure, motorized film advance, built-in flash, zoom lenses, weatherproofed bodies, panorama film formats, date backs, and more. In fact, it's hard to pick favorites in the point-and-shoot category, partly because there are so many to choose from and partly because so many of the choices are good.

But if you're in the market for a basic, easy-to-operate camera with a midrange zoom and an assortment of Space Age features, you can't go wrong with Nikon's One-Touch Zoom (street price: $110), Fuji's Discovery 270 Zoom ($200), Pentax's IQZoom 90MC ($270), Minolta's Freedom Zoom Explorer ($170), or Canon's Sure Shot 70 ($170). If push came to shove, my top picks would be the Olympus Stylus Zoom 115, a stylish compact with a great 38mm to 115mm zoom and a street price of about $250, and the pricey ($1,260) Contax TVS, which has a supersharp Carl Zeiss 28mm to 56mm zoom, a sleek titanium body, and that certain something the pros seem to go for.

One final word of warning: You still get what you pay for, so opt for a metal body if you're rough on equipment, a long zoom if you're going to be shooting lions in Africa, and a sharp lens if you want to end up with quality enlargements.