New Camera

I found myself in the same position recently. :) My 3-year-old took to my camera and that was the end of that camera (it is now her "big girl" camera). I would advise you to focus more on zoom than megapixels. My old camera had 3x zoom and it was ok, my new one has 12x zoom and it is awesome! It also has the 7.1 MP you mention. I have always used Kodak because I just love their software and they offer affordable products. They have a tool on their site that allows you to search for cameras using a price range, zoom and MP preference. If I were you, I'd start there. Once you narrow down which camera you want, I'd hit someplace like Wal-Mart, for the best deal. Good luck! http://digitalcameras.kodak.com/

they have new ones at K-MART,that fit what you are looking for.i just paid 179.00 for mine.it has 8 pixels,4x zoom,i think it is great.name brand is FUJI.good luck.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S750 ($150 , 7.2MP) is probably the best if you want to fiddle around with the settings to really take some great pictures.

Canon PowerShot A580 ($150 , 8MP) is probably the best point and shoot for picture quality.

Hope that helps!

I would like to recommend 2 websites to you... beachcamera.com and woot.com. Woot has a different deal each day and often they have great deals on cameras, sometimes for only $99 or $79! I have purchased numerous products from this website and have been pleased with each one. Be careful to read the entire description though, as they sometimes sell refurbished and remanufactured, which isn't always a bad thing. Beachcamera. com is a website I stumbled across when I was comparing prices for cameras myself; they definitely have the best deals. If you happen to buy from Best Buy, I highly recommend purchasing their extended warranty for the camera because they will replace it for damage such as you described. Good luck!

My daughter just bought a Kodak easy share, 7.1 megapixel, for $130 (on sale I think). I want one like hers, as it has NO noticable delay and no red eye with flash. I know her camera has zoom, but am not sure if it's 3X. All the pictures she took on our family vacation were awesome. Also her kids have dropped the camera several times, and it held up fine. I also really liked the size, it just fit in her pocket, not as big as a pack of cigarettes!

I have a Kodak Easyshare Z710. It is 7.1 megapixels with 10X zoom. It is very user friendly and takes wonderful clear pictures. You can get them for $150 or less. They use a SD card. I have a 1 GB card and can take over 500 pictures. I have thoroughly enjoyed this camera. I have taken pictures at weddings, parties, beach, night, flowers, birds etc. It is wonderful

Dont get Kodak EasyShare!! I hate it. Before I had a Nikon and it was good! Fuji has one that takes the pic instantly the others have a few secound delay which can make a huge difference!

I have a Kodak EasyShare camera and Love it!!!
It takes great pictures and video. I purchased it for about $125 and it's great. I am sure you could find a newer version with all you are looking for for under $150.'
Hope this helped good luck!

I have 4 children and they are ALL less than 2 years apart. I love it. They have always been close and they still play together, even though the older 2 are teens. I always found that the youngest was facinated with the baby, not jealous. Also, giving them a baby doll to mother helped too.

It is a LITTLE more expensive (I think I paid around $200), but I got a FUJI FinePix S700 for myself at Christmas. I LOVE IT. I noticed another poster mentioned this, but you need to watch the ZOOM numbers. I couldn't care less about "digital" zoom, what you want is "optical" zoom... You usually will get pretty decent pixels with anything that has a good optical zoom on it. And 3x optical is NOT good. My Fuji has 10X optical (FANTASTIC Pictures with this) and 7.1 mega pixels. It also does video with sound. I HIGHLY recommend this camera. I did a lot of online comparisons and checked consumer reviews on cameras when I was shopping... Check this camera out. If you can afford just a bit more than the $150 you mentioned, you will be glad you spent it... I wish I'd had THIS camera instead of my old Kodak easyshare digital 3x optical zoom that I've been using for the past few years. I missed a ton of great things b/c if I couldn't use the zoom with the video feature... and if I tried to print my digitally zoomed ones they didn't come out well.
Good luck with the shopping.. it can get confusing...
Just remember the OPTICAL zoom is the crucial feature...

(and just fyi it also has a good sized LCD screen to see the shot before you take it, OR you can just use the regular viewfinder, can use both SD or xD memory, and is both fully automatic/or you can set it so that YOU control the film speed, etc... if you are great with the camera and hubby is not - this is a cool feature. It also will take continuous shots and has picture stabilization, and has a "macro" feature so you can take the really really really close up shots - like of babies first tooth, bugs for the science project your 8 yr old has to do, or jewelry for insurance purposes). I love it!