A camera for a parent

[Timo]

Hey guys,

My mum is in the market for a digital camera. I thought i'd be able to figure out a nice one for her but the options are overwhelming - so I came here for help. She takes photos of the students of her school, and their sports, etc. SLR is not really an option, the last thing she wants to do is fiddle around with lenses. She's after is a decent SLR-like digital camera, with video recording capabilities, good burst capture, fast flash recharge (current is around 20 seconds), as well as a decent sized screen and battery life (ie a Li-ion battery apposed to AA's). Price wise, she's looking at less than $1000NZD (~750USD).
Trawling the internet it looks like the Sony DSC-H10 or the DMC-FZ18 are her best options. Would you guys agree or is there a better camera out there for her?

Thanks a bunch!

[SpeedingSphere]

I know you said you dont want to go SLR, but you can get a very capable Canon 350D + a nice ranged lens for <$750 I'd say. But then again, it wont shoot video. The flash recharge is ready on the next shot(non burst) and its burst rate goes up to 3fps. It has a great battery life and the screen is decent.

*If you decide to do SLR's, here is a combo under $750.

$449 for a body+18-55mm kit lens, which would be better than a point and shoot any day imo.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Rebel_XT.html

$279 for the 55-250mm lens. It'll catch right behind the kit lens for shooting sports and other general use, and It's quite a nice lens I've heard.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont....y=0&Go=submit

That's $728 USD excluding shipping. Give yourself another $25 and go to $775 and you could get a nice memory card and a bag to tote it around with.

[Anbesol]

The Sony DSC-R1 I would say is the best option of them all - it doesn't get closer to SLR than that. But the Konica Minolta Dimage A200/A2 would have a bit more features on the video side of things, plus a wider zoom range, more telephoto. Both a very good fit for the budget (the a200's going for between $300 and $400 ebay! GREAT deal!), you could even add a bounce flash and high capacity memory, extra battery, filters, etc. Either of those cameras would outperform the H10 and FZ18 at every turn.