Recommendations for a new point and shoot camera

[ImmortalSoldier]

I have been doing some homework in order to buy a new camera. With so many choices out there I feel very overwhelmed. I've read countless reviews and wrote lots of names down. Went to my local Best Buy which had a horrible selection, and I messed around with some.

I am trying to keep cost around $300.

Looking for a good all round camera.
~10 MP
High optical zoom
Fast Flash recharge
Tons of moving pictures, gonna be shooting a lot of sports
Decent quality pictures
I'd like a camera that does some video.
However I found out that on most cameras once you start shooting video you can't zoom in or out, and that is very very annoying. Plus I do have a decent hd video camera.

The camera I found to my liking was the Sony Cybershot H20. Not the best reviewed but if in doubt I'm used to go with Sony.

I read alot of reviews which all point to pretty much any Canon.

I really liked the Panasonic Lumix LX3 but thats completely out of my budget.

Please please any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[akshatp]

Do yourself a favor and skip the Sony P&S.

For $300 and less, I would say the Canon SD780IS is your best bet.

 

[DaWhim]

I would go with Panasonic. LX3 zooming is little weak though, but wide angel of P&S camera would be nice..

 

[twistedlogic]

Originally posted by: ImmortalSoldier
Tons of moving pictures, gonna be shooting a lot of sports

Just my opinion, its pretty hard to shoot sports (with great results) with a DSLR and a slow lens, let alone a P&S with shutter lag and low FPS.

Its doable, you just have to work harder. But with sports, you don't always have the luxury of getting another chance at the shot you missed.