[ale] [OT] Recommendations for (somewhat cheap) digital cameras?

[Allen Beddingfield]

Somewhat off-topic question:  Any recommendation for inexpensive digital cameras?
Up until recently, there were tons of fairly good sub $200 point and shoot digital cameras that had some optical zoom capability.  Nikon, Olympus, Canon, Minolta, Sony, Panasonic, etc... were all making them.  Now, Kodak is the only recognizable brand name in that price range.  I've never used anything but Nikon, but they seem to be beyond my price range, if they are available at all.  The rest seem to be in the $300-400 range.  
I'm okay going up to that price range, if needed.  Anyone have good/bad/indifferent experience with any of the current offerings?  I know the increasing quality of cell phone cameras has mostly killed the cheap digital camera market, but I really hate fumbling around in a phone menu to take  a picture.  Usually by the time I get my phone unlocked, find the app, fumble around in it, etc ....the subject has long since moved.  Also, my ultra-cheap android phone has a terrible camera, and by the time I zoom in, the photo is so grainy it looks more like a paint by number painting than a photo.  I really want motorized optical zoom.
Sigh, I wish my old 7MP Nikon from 18 years ago hadn't finally worn out lol
Allen B.

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Allen Beddingfield
Systems Engineer
Office of Information Technology
The University of Alabama
Office 205-348-2251
allen at ua.edu