Newbie advice on purchase - action, zoom

[garyswood]

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera?
Up to $350

Size

Compact to SLR sizing, but not SLR. Considered them, but price and lens/gear toting on long hikes made them impractical.

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?
Minimum 6.x to 8.x would be fine.

* What optical zoom will you need?
Ultrazoom

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

Do you care for manual controls?
A nice-to-have, not essential. Manual focus would help action shots.

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
A do-it-all camera for outdoor shots (hiking) and family portraits, but main focus is action sports shots (i.e. windsurfing) from a distance (100-400 yds).

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
Max 8X10

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
Some, but not real action, just standard family style, mostly posed.

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
Yes!

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?

We have had good luck with Nikon and Canon, but they don't seem to be as competitive in this marketplace.

Have looked somewhat at Canon sx100 and DMCFZ8, but would appreciate group feedback on good bang-for-the-buck. Need to purchase in next two weeks.

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

Image stabilization.

[tim11]

Since you are looking at Canon SX100 you should also consider the widely popular Panasonic TZ series. 10x optical zoon, IS.... etc.

[David Metsky]

Since size doesn't seem to bother you, consider a Canon S5 or an Olympus SP-560. I think you'll find the both of them perform better then the compact ultrazooms if you are willing to learn a bit about manual controls.

If a "10" in image quality for action shots is important to you you'll want to use manual controls to at least some degree.