First decent Compact

[EliotG]

Hi everyone, brand new to the forum =]

Right, basically I like the idea of taking decent photos, but the only problem is I can't afford an SLR.

I need the camera to do the following:

- HD Video with good sound quality (mic connector?)
- Fairly decent low light (Not a big thing though)
- Obviously great image quality
- Good zoom (10x or more if possible)
- Good at closeups
- Like to be able to play with shutter speeds and be relatively quick at taking photo's.
- Image Stabilisation.

Thats about it really, I will mainly be taking pictures of cars, woodland scenes, and flowers close up etc.

I would like to be able to fiddle with the settings on the camera as well.

If someone could help me out and suggest a few cameras I would be very grateful. There are so many to choose from.

My budget is about £200 - £250. Tops. I hope this is enough.

Thanks a lot.

EliotG.