which one is right?

[cottonwood]

ya, its another one of those type of threads, sorry guys.

its time for me to upgrade my camera, and i'm trying to figure what camera to get.
what i had: 7.2 megapixel casio that i've been really happy with. but sand got into the lens or something this summer and it wont close, and its been suffering a slow death since then.

here's what i'm looking for
1. good nature/landscape. ( i have a good epson photo printer that i love to print pics out on )
2. good low light pictures, and also good low light with movement (think: concert) is0 1600/3200
3. good quality (duh) 10+ mp; at least 3x optical zoom
4. rechargeable battery
5. fast. quick turn on, quick to take a pic. i used to have a canon that would take like 8 seconds to take a picture. hated it.
6. slim. i want it small, just don't want something i can't fit in my pocket.

i'm planning on spending somewhere in the 200-300 range, but my price is flexible. i'm no expert on cameras by any means, but i know few things, and being young still, i would love to grow this into a bigger hobby.

i was at a local camera store the other day and he said that the nikon 610 (which i had already had some interest in) and sony t77 would be great fits.

anyways, anyone got any recommendations for me?

thanks!

[SmartWombat]

2, 5, and 6 are contradictory.
You're not going to find any camera that does it all.

For good low ISO performance, you need a bigger sensor than is in a P&S.
For good low light performance you need a wider aperture than you get in a pocket P&S.
By making it slim, you force the camera to have small lens and small sensor - making it worse for what you want.

Solutions?
Same size camera and sensor, with less pixels.
I found the 5MP Minolta A1 was better than the 8MP Kinoca A2 that replaced it.

Compromise on the specs.
Let it be a little bigger, compromising on 6 will make it more likely to meet 1,2,3.

Why 4?
Any camera that takes AA batteries will take AA rechargeables.
Problems I have with custom batteries for tiny cameras: cost, recharge time, shot count, slow flash recycling.


You make it rather hard by saying "good" quality. We all have different definitions of that.
What you might think of as good I'd not want to use for producing a calendar, or an 18"x12" print. Let along a 24x36 poster.

If you're going to grow this, then consider SLR cameras now or next time.
It's a way to get bigger sensors, far better lenses - so better image quality.
And more control over how you product the image, shutter and aperture control for more creative shots.