first time digi camera owner - some help wanted

ARTHUR

Its my birthday soon and I am thinking of asking for a digital camera (which will have to be sub £100), I was looking at the Nikon coolpix L22 but many of the reviews say it gives blurry pictures so that won’t be suitable, so I am now looking at the FUJIFILM FINEPIX AV110 and I have a couple of questions for anyone who owns one.
How is the quality of the pictures? (Sharpness, colours, blurriness etc)
When recording video in HD do you have any trouble with the camera freezing?
When recording in HD does the sound cut out when you use the optical zoom feature?
In there a long pause between pressing the shutter button and the camera capturing the picture? (Some cameras take several seconds)
One last question how many full def photos would fit on a 2 gig sd card (also how many minutes video recording full def would you get on a 2 gig card)
And any other comments on the camera would be welcome
Thanks in Advance

£$&*"($£&(

Hard to say but cheap Fujifilms have been a bit hit and miss. There's some good deals on the Canon A490/A495 at present and they are decent. There's a Canon A3000IS at Argos for £79 at Argos (actually just gone back up to £99). It's a decent camera, decent reviews and I have one. It has optical image stabilisation which is handy. Picture are good and you can adjust sharpness.

ARTHUR

yes I have heard that canon is a good make of digi camera, it seems all digis are a bit hit and miss - while one model might be great the next model up might have bad quality photos.
I will have a look in argos
thanks for the tip (pity its just gone up in price)
any idea on shutter lag
EDIT - your right the canon A490/495 also look quite good - anyone got any reviews on them

debitcardmayhem

Hi Arthur,

this is a good place to llok for photo tips,techniques and stuff http://www.cambridgeincolour.com
They have a forum too this one is for compact digital cameras
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/forum2.htm

£$&*"($£&(

A495 review (I've seen another favorable review)

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/canon_powershot_a495_review/

and a less favourable A490

http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2010/04/01/Canon-PowerShot-A490/p1

and a more favourable one:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/compact-cameras/canon-powershot-a490-673845/review

ARTHUR

grahawk wrote: »

A495 review (I've seen another favorable review)

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/canon_powershot_a495_review/

and a less favourable A490

http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2010/04/01/Canon-PowerShot-A490/p1

and a more favourable one:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/compact-cameras/canon-powershot-a490-673845/review

hey great those reviews are exactly what I am looking for, they answer most my questions
it a pity that you cant use the optical zoom in movie mode but given the price its understandable - on some of the sample pictures (the first review) there seems to be some 'noise' on the night time photos is that normal?