Now that I've wasted far too much time reading reviews, I've settled on the Canon A610. It's got just about everything I want; a 4x optical zoom, fast shot to shot time, can use AAA or rechargable batteries and at 5 megapixels I can print the occasional 8 x 10 if I want. And I found it for $236 on the internet (a store I've purchased from before). A few extra dollars for a 1 GB memory card and I'm set!
:banana: :banana: :banana: