[DLo]

This is what I'm lookin for:

$200 budget
Optical zoom of course
Some type of action control, shutter speed manual thingy? The pictures I take usually involve quite alot of speed. I'm tired of blurry pics.
Movie option is not important to me. Smartmedia would be preferable but I guess compact should be ok.

Any idears?

I'm thinkin of the Canon A80/A70.. looks like a good camera, but I don't know how it is with action. Or an Olympus. Is refurbished generally ok?

 

[binary visions]

For that much money, all of those cameras (Nikon xx00 series, Canon Axx series, all cameras of those approx. specs and price) are about the same. They all have a manual shutter speed control, they all have about the same aperture settings and zoom... None will be fantastic for action pictures but they'll work.

Choose the one that fits best in your hand and has the menus layed out the best. Other than that, there's not a lot to choose. Avoid Kodak and Casio because their lenses are pretty sub-par.

If the refurbished one comes with a warrenty (it should), then its fine.