I used to use a Cannon SureShot. The advantages was the 10-second delay, the built-in flash, many different modes (although I rarely used too many), and the zoom. It had a 12x optical zoom and a 4x digital zoom on top. The optical zoom was great for taking far away photos making them look like close-up, so you could stealthily take a “close-up” photo from a distance. Not great for selfies, though. It had a standard tripod mount, but it makes it difficult to use as a point and shoot if you’ve got a tripod attached. I broke it when sitting it on my car trunk to take a selfie.
I now use a GoPro Hero 8. The advantages are that it is fairly wide angle, so I can be in close and still get a full body shot, the built-in mini tripod (it collapses to a handle), and the voice activation to take a photo, video, or burst of photos (you can then join them into a moving GIF or select the best photo if people tend to blink). The disadvantages are the non-standard mount (you have to put on a different mount to use on a standard tripod), the lack of zoom for landscape shots, and the lack of a flash if you are a little back lit.
Being a Unix/Linux person (I’ve used it for 40 years), I usually use GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program, where Gnu is pronounce “g’new,” not like the wildebeest “new”). It’s a very powerful photo editor and is available on other platforms. I usually use only basic functions: white balance, brightness and contrast, red eye removal (more for group photos and with a flash; it also seems to occur more frequently in people with blue eyes than brown eyes), cropping, and scaling. On rare occasions I might smudge or copy over a small area (perhaps to remove a high intensity area like a flash reflection), or play with sharpening or blurring (including pixilation).
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