Right now I'm working with a Kodak EasyShare CX7300. 3.2 megapixels. No optical zoom. No control over the shutter speed. It sucks.

I'm looking for something with about 4 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, and manual control of the shutter speed (up to 10 or 15 seconds). I'm a poor u niversity student, so the cheaper the better (ideally under $250CAD)

Thoughts?

under $250CA?? Thats gonna be hard ... I just baught my first digital camera about a week ago ... its a Vivitar VivCam 3915 5.0 megapixels, no optical zoom, 2x digital zoom, 14 MB ... its not bad for a first camera, but i defidentally dont recommend it. Anyways, i payed about $220 for that one (on sale at Zellers). If you want something better and of higher quality, you must look at a price range between $250 - $350...
Heres (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1018) a good forum, that'll defidentally help you out with any digital camera questions/problems that you have ... its really awesome.

If you do end up finding a nice DC then tell me :) so i can return mine and get that one .. i really dont like the one i have now ..

How much is 250 Canadian dollars?

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/class.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid=1127

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/dept.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid=20218

^Evidently the new Canon series is out! Canon is pretty good.

This is obviously the successor of the A75 :(
http://www.bestbuy.ca/multimedia/products/large/10057429.jpg

How much is 250 Canadian dollars?
$250.00-CA = 156.22-EU or $200.05-US

The Canon PowerShot A510 looks pretty good and is very nicely priced. According to DPReview which DLL 4ever posted and I used for basing my decision to buy my camera, its only drawbacks (that I noticed on a quick look through of its features) was that you use AA batteries, instead of a rechargeable battery pack.

They list it as USD $190 which is around CAD $250, I believe.

It does have a manual setting so you should be able to control shutter speed. It has 4x optical zoom, but has only 3.2 MPs.

It does sound like a pretty decent camera for USD $190.

3.2 mps is pretty decent for most users.

^ I am actually in about 45 minutes going to go to purchase the Canon PowerShot A510. :banana:

Great price ($200 USD), great brand, loads of features. Could not be happier.

oohh!!! Finally DonQui will show us a lot of pics!! Congratulations my friend, and enjoy your new cam!

Wow...seems like he has already decided by the time he asked the question in this page! :D Will be looking forward to the picts too. ;)

A510/A520 is cool camera. Everything you need but you will need to buy new card (the one in package is only 16mb) and new batteries (rechargables).