I am thinking to buy digital camera for personal use. I ask for your suggestions with experience. Maximum Budget- $700.
Expecting honest suggestions only....Thank you.

With your budget you can buy DSLR and Walmart is still selling Blackfiday sale price. I bought Nicon D3000 for $599 with 55-200 lens from Best Buy.
But something is different slightly and price was 499 with 10.2 Mega pixel. Not bad.
 

If you are looking for an entry-level dSLR, I agree that the Nikon D3000 would be a good buy. If you want a point-shoot camera, I'd consider the Canon G11 or S90. S90 is pocketable but G11 is not quite so. Both take great pictures and are perhaps the best point and shoots out there. There's some nice S90 deals going around, do some search online and you will find them.

Anything for less than 300? Of course I don't mean "anything" but something really good for that price?

Try Nikon Coolpix p90. This is simply amazing. 12.1 megapixels and 24x zoom...Thats great. Price is around 300. I just bought it for around 299. Simply the best, almost close to dslr.

Sony touch screen t90 best

Thank you for sharing info.

Go for Coolpix P90 , was 250 dollars last week. 

I highly recommend you to buy SONY DSC HX-1.  This is the latest and  the greatest camera.  It is being sold for $ 499. in the market.  Buy online from butterfly photos for $ 449.  Read the reviews and compare different cameras first and I am sure you will pick Sony DSC HX-1.

i also bought sony touch screen T-90 and i am very satisfied with it... love the pics quality and price was good too.

i recently found a deal for nikon p90 for $250.i havent used it that much but i did lilttle research before i bought it it looked great.i m excited to use it during my winter break.go for it dude

If you have budget of $700, I would say go for an entry level DSLR, based on how good you already are. If pocket size portability is not your issue at all, then you shouldn't even consider the compact point and shoot option. Paying for too many features that you will never use is of no point, and high megapixel thing is just a hype.

I would recommend an entry level DSLR like Nikon D40, and invest the remaining money in lens, filters, and flash (if desired). If you want that camera to record video too, then you have to look for sth like Nikon D90 (not sure if it records video, you can check that out).

Simple if beutiful, and small is beautiful too, so don't overwhelm yourself with too many techno jargons. FYI: check  kenrockwell.com for some more insight.

For $700, i would certainly go for sony a-330 or sony a-380.

Does anyone have any experience using Canon VIXIA HV40 camcorder (shown below). I'm thinking about buying it for school use after converting it into 35mm film camera with 35 mm conversion kit (and SLR lenes that I already have for my DSLR) .

It looks like this after 35mm camera conversion. The pic below show the 35mm conversion done by someone else on previous version of Canon camcorder (VIXIA HV20) with similar features.

I'm trying to get cinematic look by converting ordinary consumer HD camera with 35mm conversion kit and DSLR still-photography lenses.

This guy had done a pretty decent job of converting his ordinary Canon HV30 consumer camera with 35mm conversion kit to give that Hollywood cinematic look. Check this out.