If you have and use a point and shoot, get the same brand. Shorter learning curve.

I don't like Sony, as they have propriatary batterys, memory, and storage software.

Get a camera that takes AA batteries and std memory chips. Get extra batteries and memory.

Get a USB card reader for your memory.

Buy a 2 or 3 megapixal camera for $3-500 and play with it for a while.