I need a new camera

I was going to walk over to the Lincoln Memorial and see the Obama message wall today - and take pictures, of course - but when I grabbed my camera, I saw that it wasn't working. I messed around with it for awhile but something's wrong and I can't seem to fix it. It lets me take pictures but they all show up as black (or black with purple streaks when I put it right into the light). It's not the screen that's the problem, though, because pictures already on my CompactFlash card show up just fine on the screen. I just can't take new pictures. Bummer. But I've had that camera for a few years (four, I think) and I have dropped it a few times so I guess it's not shocking that there's something wrong with it. Ironically, I had been thinking that I would like to get a new one that's smaller and maybe more powerful so I guess now I have a good excuse to go ahead and do it. Plus, I have birthday money that was recently given to me (thanks family! and yes, better late than never).