Looking for "cool" 4-7MP camera ~$200

[Kyocera]

Ray
(who's looking for a nice small, 6 or 7MP camera for the younger daughter)

Ray, my girlfriend got me a this HP Photosmart 6mp and a 512MB sandisk with usb reader.
It will take videos also as long as you have the memory to hold it, one 512 card will take about a 15 to 20 minute video. The thing that blew me away was the mic's ability to pick up the audio portion. I used it to record these short guitar videos on Youtube if you use headphones you can see the audio is great, which is important. It has many features also.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Kyocera234

[rkawakami]

Thanks for the suggestion about the HP. I just looked at it on dpreview.com and it doesn't meet one of my daughter's criteria for "coolness". Namely, it's too thick. She's got a Canon A510 I bought for her about a year ago. My Canon A10 has developed (pun intended) an exposure problem at maximum zoom so she proposed letting me have the A510 if I get her a new camera. Pretty smart, huh? Her, not me.

Personally, I like cameras that operate off of AA batteries (easy to find and carry spares; geez, what's that 160MP camera use, an internal nuclear reactor ?) and that look like cameras and not a credit card. The older daughter has a Casio Exilim EX-S500. Way too thin in my book, but that's what the kids today like. Me, I've been happy with the miniscule 1.3MP A10 (1/120th of the resolution of that Seitz monster) since I don't print many pictures on paper but instead, post the images online.

So I guess what I'm looking for is a "cool", 6-7MP camera that's 1" or under in thickness, takes continuous video until the Secure Digital card is full (want SD since I've got plenty of them). Should have at least 3x optical zoom; willing to entertain thoughts of optical stabilization for 6x or better zoom. Added: 2" or larger LCD. And all of this for around $200. Any suggestions?

Moderator edit: Split off from original thread since it's getting OT

[tomh009]

Canon SD40 would be a nice fit, I think, but it's closer to $300, so may be out of your range ...

[rkawakami]

Yeah, a little more than I'd like to spend. Plus, I forgot about the LCD size... it should be at least 2"; 2.5" preferable. I'll be scanning dpreview.com, steves-digicams.com and imaging-resource.com over the next week or so looking for candidates.

I would consider stepping down to a 4-5MP camera if all of the other features are available. I really don't see that much difference in quality from a 4MP image to an 8MP one, but maybe again, that's because of my eyes .

[RUSH2112]

Canon makes the S3 which is actually pretty nice, around $350 i think
If I were to get a P&S, that would probably be it.

[jamiphar]

My dad has a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1. It's a very sharp 5MP camera with 10X optical zoom. Here's one on eBay.

:EDIT:
It doesn't use AA's, but the rechargeable batteries are really cheap on eBay.

[tomh009]

Canon makes the S3 which is actually pretty nice, around $350 i think
If I were to get a P&S, that would probably be it.

LCD viewfinder -- ugh. My mom traded her S50 for an S2 IS and I was rather disappointed in the S2.

I bought a little-used S70 about a month ago since Canon appears to be discontinuing the Sxx series, and I wanted a little bit more resolution than my old S30 had, without losing the control that it gives me. And it has decent wide angle as well.