Buying a new camera.

[Dinnesch]

Hi,
my mom's birthday is very soon, and I was thinking of giving her a new camera.
She currently has a 2MP Canon Ixus with 10 minutes of battery life, which isn't quite perfect.
My budget is somewhere around 200 euros($250-300)
These are my requirements:

-At least 5 Megapixel with very good image quality(she doesn't need a high resolution, just quality)

-30FPS VGA or higher video recording

-At least 6x optical zoom with good stabilization

-A decent flash

-A battery with at least 2 hours of lifetime, bonus points if it uses AA batteries

-SDHC support up to 8GB or higher



Is it possible to get a reasonable camera with these requirements within my budget?
I've done some research on reviews and tests, but I kept getting different results on what's the best choice.
Thanks!

EDIT: Sorry that I didn't post this question in Tyguy's thread, I didn't see it.

 

[xcellerate]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120345

?

 

[Dinnesch]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120345

?

I looked at some reviews, but the photo quality was a bit meh. Is this pretty much the best you can get for $200-300 or..?
I really don't need 12MP, 5MP is fine, as long as the photos are sharp and the way it handles different levels of light is good.

 

[Asus]

Some quick picks.
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerSh...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1248334096&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1248334445&sr=1-2
Some do HD 720 video.
Not sure if you needed a viewfinder or any other specification.

These numbers are just an example. Using numbers equivalent to a 35mm camera here. If a digital camera had a 25mm to 125mm focal length then it would be branded with a '5x optical zoom' tag. If another had 36mm to 144mm the it would say '4x zoom'. You would think the first could go farther but really the second one can bring in a picture closer. It just has less 'zoom' (range) since it can't pull back as far. The first example would be a camera with a wide angle lens so you get more image in your camera without backing up (group photo, room picture, zoomed out scene pic).

If you just want to make sure you can really do zoom pics then look at the bigger focal length number and not just 'zoom'.

 

[Dinnesch]

Thanks for the info on how to determine the zoom distance, I never thought of that before D:

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerSh...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1248334096&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1248334445&sr=1-2

That Panasonic looks like a good choice, after reading a few reviews I saw the photo quality can be very good in certain situations.


Any other suggestions?