I had bought a Panasonic DMC-TZ5K from new egg with a 16 gig sd card and so far this is been the best camera I own for a point and shoot. It has a 67x digital zoom at 3 MP and a 40x digital zoom at 9 mp and a 10x optical zoom. I took over 600 pictures plus HD movies with it and still couldn't fill the card up on my latest trip. The only draw back to it in low light you will need a picture editor or movie editor to correct for the low light. (Read the comments from New Egg).
Other than that, it replaced my Cannon S50 and I carried the Panasonic in my cargo pants pocket the whole trip and I've been very happy with the pics.

Panasonic DMC-TZ5K Black 9.0 MP $269.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830180146



Sample pics





Before Zoom



After Zoom




Small Zoom


more zoom but it can go a lot closer than this


_________________________
Failure is not an option!
USMC Jungle Environmental Survival Training PI 1985