Current model close to Fuji F31fd

[chiruanna]

Hi all,

A few years ago this forum helped me get the F31fd and I've never had to look back nor needed another camera.
I've been asked by many to suggest a current model that would be as good as (if not better) than that one.

I was wondering if you could suggest one.

(I searched and this thread came close but wandered off topic
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43513&highlight=f31fd)

Here is the copy paste of my original post with requirements:
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Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera?
$300 or less.

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
Small. Able to fit in my pocket. This is very imp

Features

* How many megapixels will suffice for you?
5 MP or more

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)
3X or more

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
8

Do you care for manual controls?
Not that much

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
General purpose ...
around parks, museums, zoos, travels, fireworks, sunsets, indoors, taking pics of recipes for blogs, etc

Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
No.

* Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Yes. This is also very imp. A majority of my pics are either night shots, low light or indoors.

*Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Occasionally

Miscellaneous

*Are there particular brands you like or hate?
Any brand is fine

*Are there particular models you already have in mind?
None

*Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)

Image stabilization, good battery life, good size LCD, lots of shooting modes.
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[KCook]

In my view your $300 ceiling keeps you in the Fuji camp for a low light compact. Either F100fd (if you can still find one) or F70EXR. Take away the pocket size requirement and there are also some interesting SLR-like cameras to play with.

Kelly Cook

[chiruanna]

Thanks I'll check those out.
Pocket size is a big requirement in this case. So, can't take it out there.

What are the SLR-like ones you mentioned?

[KCook]

Last year you could find deals on the Canon SX10 IS or Olympus SP-565UZ for $300 or less. But now it looks like those have been cleaned out. And the current model ultrazooms are over $300.

My bad,
Kelly