Looking for a cheap digital camera with control of shutter and aperture?

can anyone recommend a moderately priced digital camera with some manual control of shutter and aperture? i can't afford to spend $500 for a good digital slr....i can really only do $300 or less. does anyone have a suggestion? also needs to be at least 4 megapixels and preferably a well known brand. i did google this and check circuit city, best buy, etc, but i couldn't quite find one...i don't think-- i'm not good with camera lingo and i wasn't sure what phrases to look for. thanks!

I would recommend the new Canon Powershot A630, which costs under $300.
It has excellent image quality, speedy performance, 8MP, 4x optical...and has full manual controls (aperture & shutter priority).
The slightly better A640, has 10MP, but costs over $300.
You will also need a fast SD memory card, such as the Sandisk Extreme III (1-2GB).

Check out the links below...

I bought the Canon Powershot S3 IS about a month ago, and I'm extremely happy with it. I couldn't afford a full fledged digital SLR camera (Not yet at least), but the S3 provides me with an excellent stepping stone in my learning curve, as you can go as manual or automatic as you want. The S3 is a little more than your budget, you could find one in the high $300 range, but the predesessor, the S2, is almost as good as the S3, and gives you a host of manual functions, as well as a decent zoom and good lens. (For the money.)
The S2 gives you all the manual controlls you ask for, and more, and is a 5 Megapixel camera. For a review of this camera check out the link below, you'll see it gets good grades from both the editor and the users, and it's in your price range.

you can read reviews of this camera by ebay members. here's the direct link

Petra's choice of the A630 is excellent and better than what I will suggest, but I'm only adding this in case the A630 is too much for your budget.

The Canon Powershot A540 sells for around $170. You can add a decent memory card for $30 or so, keeping the total price at $200.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Ca...

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_revi...

I do not know ANYTHING about it, but the A550 was introduced yesterday. It looks like a 7 MP upgrade to the A540.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Ca...