Aside from the casio EX-F1 which may well be very out of the price range (never have to worry about missing a shot again) you could try ....


try out a canon powershot sx100, they run about mid 200s now and are very good with their Image stabilization and ability to shoot full manual/manual focus/macro mode/color settings/control whitebalance and a variety of settings (firmware turns it into a DSLR).

some reviews and information can be found here:

if you're not tooooo intense bout image quality the 40x zoom is great too, and the 10x lets you focus in a good 60 mm focal range, at the least, i think it goes all the way up to 200+ equiv. of focal range with the 40x (keep in mind that after 10x zoom the pixels are digitally enlarged in the camera).
price:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PROD...S/SX100ISA.HTM
info and specs:
http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/con...view-16125.htm
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07...nonsx100is.asp

i understand the limited budget, working class citizen here who cant even afford to support himself ! Haha! (it's really not as funny as i make it out to be)