Digital cameras: Looking for a Cam that handles Night time shots well.

What type of night shots does she wish to take?

Many of Canon's point and shoot models (ie Powershot SD 450, 500, 600, 630) offer the shutter speed adjustment to take pictures more accurately at night. However, if your girlfriend plans to take portrait shots of either people or night landscapes then you will definately need a tripod to steady the camera and avoid camera shake. If she plans to take indoor shots with a flash then thats a different case. Instead of looking for manual shutter speed you may want to look for a camera with a good Auto assist for focusing lens in dark environments, a good flash, and maybe the addition of red-eye reduction. The majority of compact point and shoot cameras suffer from red-eye dispite the fact that they claim to offer red-eye reduction. Some manufactures like Kodak and Nikon offer a two or three step reduction process that is a bit more successful but can also ad noise to the photos.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.