What is the best digital camera to buy that has a good zoom lens?

I need a camera w/ at least 5 MP's with a good optical zoom ( 6x or better) for less than $300. Any help would be appreciated.

You can find the Canon Powershot S1 with 10X zoom and 3.1MP for under $300 on eBay.

You can find the Canon PowerShot S2 with 12X zoom and 5MP for under $400 on the net and on ebay.

the camera that I have been able to find that meet your criteria the closest is the Samsung Digimax A55W. Selles for $249 on Amazon.com. Has 5MP and a 28-135mm (4.8X) zoom.

Becareful buying cameras from ebay. Do not buy from sellers with feedback under 100. Do not buy if they only want money orders or want to use a gold exchange site or Western Union.

Canon

You get a Canon or a Nikon they lead the digital camera industry. Optical zoom 6 or better is hard to find for 300 bucks. You better wait until Good Friday. I'm looking for one too but they just don't make more than 4. 5 mp is not enough but don't go over 8 mps don't need it don't spend the money on it!

I have Nikon Coolpix L1, which is 6.2 MegaPixcel with 5X optical zoom, 2.5" LCD display, it is really cool and serves my purpose, it costs you around 280$ -- 300$ including 1GB memory card

Get the Sony DSC-H5 digital camera. It has 12X optical (36~432mm equiv). and the megapixel is 7.2. It cost 500 bucks.