One that you'll use, and find easy to use.
The on-board cameras that come with most phones and tablet devices might suit your needs. The ability of these built-in cameras to stitch a series of images together to make a panorama, apps that offer high dynamic range processing and various special effects that cost just a couple of dollars, not to mention their ability to instantly broadcast your creative efforts to the wider world, make miracle workers of smartphones and tablets.
The biggest frustration with this type of camera is their lack of an effective zoom lens and limited image quality. The leopard sitting on a tree branch or the Grand Canyon deserve something better, and the next step up is a compact camera, which might be anything from a point-and-shoot that does the thinking for you to cameras with big sensors that take interchangeable lenses, and offer the user the option of total control.
In most situations, these cameras offer you the creative possibilities and image quality of an SLR, with portability and lower cost as the payoffs.
