When and of what are you primarily going to be taking pictures? These make a HUGE difference on what kind of camera you need. Here are some general comments on camera features

Make sure which options you are comfortable with and which ones you aren't. BTDT My first digital camera had a proprietary rechargeable battery w/ 3x zoom & wrote the files to floppy disks (at the time I was thinking that I can find floppies anywhere but memory cards were hard to find if I filled one up and zoom was limited to 3x). The second one took care of the floppies & proprietary battery. It's only flaw was the picture offset of the view finder. By the third, zooms had progressed to about 10x and a viewfinder w/ LCD display were reasonably priced.

I would start by deciding what type of view finder you want. Go to a store & try the different viewfinders. The display choices near your price range are:

LCD only requires holding the camera well away from your body to take a picture.

Offset view finder (like a 110 or 126) doesn't show a true view of the picture the camera is taking but this is only noticeable when taking a close-up picture. These may also have a through the lens view on the LCD.

Through the lens display in a view finder (small LCD in view finder like an SLR)

My preference is the display in a traditional viewfinder. It will allow you to see what the camera is actually taking when you snap the picture & hold it like a regular camera.

In the $100-200 price range you are probably looking at an offset viewfinder or an LCD only model.

Where you are going to be taking pictures will determine what zoom you need. A 3x zoom is relatively limited to across a large room or less unless you are taking panorama shots outdoors.

Shutter lag isn't a huge deal unless you are taking a picture that requires split second timing (sports or animals, etc.) It's just irritating if you're used to the instant operation of a film camera.