[notcoolenough]

I have owned 3 Kodak EasyShares in the past. The latest being the Z1285. I can say that, especially for the price, these are great cameras, especially the latter. I had no complaints except for one and this goes for the other 2 I owned:

They do not last long. All three of them were broken by the second month. After this happening a third time, I must say that my relationship is over with Kodak easyshare. With that being said, we move on to the case at hand...

I realize I am going to have to sacrifice a lot of things the easyshare has if I want to get another camera of a different brand, but similar price. My main concern right now is durability and HD video. I work with dogs, so I would like a durable camera, I do tend to drop things if I am not careful. I often visit my father in puerto rico, so waterproof cameras are also in the back of my mind.

I really like to take a lot of pictures, but I am not a hardcore photographer. I would like to know, first, what kind of OPTICAL ZOOM should I consider. It is the major thing that is giving me trouble deciding between the durable Pentax Optio W90 or Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2 and the less durable-but great Canon PowerShot SX200IS.

I guess the bottom line is, optical zoom. How much is too much? How much is too little? And maybe someone has further suggestions after reading what I am looking for. I really would like to stay under 300$ I will consider buying used or refurbished. Thanks for the time in reading this.

EDIT: I might add that if someone can suggest a camera that allows optical zoom while video recording, that's cool. That's another feature I loved about the easyshare. It is ashame they break so easily

[cdad]

The W90 looks good. And here is a link where you can find it on sale.

Ref:

Pentax Optio W90 16426 Digital Camera - 12.1 Megapixel 5X Optical Zoom, Waterproof, Shockproof, Dustproof, Coldproof, 2.7 LCD, Green at TigerDirect.com