Can anyone recommend a nice point-and-shoot camera?

my camera is a Nikon Coolpix.. It's great and the pictures are awesome!

There are many cameras out there that will do the sort of thing oyu want, so the best thing you can do is go to a shop and try them out. I do have the panasonic lumix tz-5 at the moment though that i can recommend you. Its around your budget and is a fantastic point and shoot camera.It has 9 megapixels and a 10x optical zoom which makes it brilliant for shooting things far away. Brilliant camera and nothing has ever gone wrong with it in the couple of years ive had it. There is an updated version of it now, the tz7 although i think the only differences are it has 12x optical zoom and shoots hd video. Hope this helps !

I look for one of the major companies and I look for one that uses Common accessories. When I buy an inexpensive compact camera I look for one that uses AA batteries and a SD card. You can find them almost any where. I prefer Canon. I would suggest that you watch stores for sales on the better models. I got a camera for my daughter that was $200 regular price but because new models were coming out I got it on sale for $99.99.