Which is best Nikon or Sony for digicams?

Point and shoot type of cams.

Both are excellent brands, as are Canon, Olympus, Fuji, Panasonic. Only by working several models from a few of those brands for several months could you decide which works best for you.

Take note of Andrew's list of brands to avoid.

Nikon doesn't make point-and-shoot cameras at the same level as their dSLR's. The Coolpix series generally turn out to have low build quality, cumbersome and not fun to use.

If you want a point-and-shoot with great build quality, long lasting power, is easy to use and has lots of features, the best would be Sony. If you want to add great optics to that list, look at Pentax.

Nikon

The camera for you is the Fujifilm S4800. Not only does it have 30x optical zoom, but it has aperture and shutter priority modes. These modes will allow you to grow in photography skills when you are ready. It shoots HD video. And it does have a viewfinder. And you can probably get it for around $150. Be sure to invest in a photography course so that you can grow as a photographer.

I'm a huge photography buff and I have a Nikon DSLR (D7000), so I've kind of developed a huge liking for Nikons. They are really great cameras and I don't think Sony can match it.

It doesn't matter which point-and-shoot you buy, none of them are anything special.

Kodak, BenQ, Vivitar, and GE are - of course - to be avoided, and Nikon will charge more for less camera.