HELP!! I Need help buying a CAMERA. reccomendations anyone?

Please help!
I need a camera within these guidelines:

- at least 3x optical zoom
-at least 4.1 megapixels [hoping for more]
-price range between $70.00-$150.00
cheapest to find but a good brand [please not vivitar]

im thinking about the casio exilim: http://www.target.com/Casio-Exilim-Digit...

but i heard the zoom sucks cuz its only 3x optical zoom.

if any1 could find me a good quality camera within these guidelines, i would appreaciate it. thanks!

Iv worked with the casio exlilim. It works very well and I like it. The fujifilm finepix z10fd is also cheap with 7mp and 3x zoom

I just went through all of this and I found a lot of great info on Photo.net. There are a lot of ppl on there that are VERY into it and will help you decide with either a point and shot or a DSLR Good luck :)

I have the Kodak Easy share, I got it for about 85 dollars and its sweet! It takes awesome pictures even when you zoom in and it even takes video's as well...I would strongly suggest this camera to anyone! It has 7 megapixels i believe!...Good luck on the hunt for a camera, but this is my suggestion...Take care hope this helped!

I'd try this one:

http://www.buy.com/prod/norcent-dcs-860-...

I'm also researching cameras and my favorite so far is the Casio Exilim EX S10- Target has it in black & silver. On the Casio website it's also available in blue, red & plum colors. It's $249.99, Target has it. This camera seems VERY worth the price. It has 10.1 megapixels, YouTube video mode, can shoot in black/white & sepia, shutter mode & tons of other features. And best of all it is very slim. This model is brand new- so it will be awhile before it's outdated! Check it out! I think whichever camera model you choose, the Exilim's are a good choice.

Megapixels are good, but not the most important consideration. Once you've passed 4 Megapixels, it only matters if you're printing 11" x 20" portraits.

Digital zoom is the same as NO zoom. Optical is everything. 3x is minimal and not very much. 10x is very adequate, but more costly.

I have two problems with the cheaper cameras out there. One is that there is no manual focus. I have to suffer auto-focus. The other is macro capability, which means being able to take very close pictures of detail.

Unless you're a sharpshooter with a gun, you'll likely want image stabilization. That keeps a focused picture when you jerk the button to take the picture.

The only other consideration might be how many shots you can snap off in succession. Cheaper cameras have a seond or two of lag time before you can take another. That is the ONLY use I can see for video capability, so that you can process individual frames for several pictures within a couple seconds, but you need extensive conversion and photo editing software. Other than that, video capability in a still camera is about as useful as lipstick on a pig.