Which Camera
 

I know very little about photography and even less about cameras so I have come to ask for help in selecting a good quality camera.
I have a Fuji now which I absolutely hate. The colors are not what I would like them to be. I'm not steady enough in holding my camera to get clear shots, lots of time they are taken one handed because I am walking Lukka and holding her in the other hand. (the shots are of rabbits or fox or deer.....anything else we see on the trails. So I have to keep Lukka held tightly or she would be off to chase these harmful and threatening wild animals :D . My shots end up in a blurr because of the motion of me struggling to hold Lukka back and my inability to hold the camera completely still while shooting. This is the result often blurry pics like these
[IMG]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p275/clwhal/DSCF0012.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p275/clwhal/DSCF0026-2.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p275/clwhal/DSCF0025-1.jpg[/IMG]

I would like to have suggestions on which camera I could buy that is fairly easy to use and could stand a bit of movement during the shot. I need it to be small and easy to handle and to tag along on trails. Any shots I blow up would be about 8 X10. My camera only has 3x zoom and I don't find that to be enough. I'm not willing to spend more than $450.00 - $500.00.

Also forgot to mention the battery life of this camera sucks. It runs on two AA's and literally only lasts minutes. I'm having to carry two extra sets with me and I would really like to get away from that. As it is I carry two water bottles for Lukka, camera with tons of batteries, binoculars, truck key, cell phone.....I feel like I need a pac mule to load this all on.

So you want an anti-camera shake feature, and long battery life... Anything else? Movies? Price?

we have the fuji finepix S5200..... it was only $299 at blacks..... i know nothing about photography and it has a few automatic settigs as well as manual. it takes pretty clear photos not the best but its pretty good

[QUOTE=Prin;423243]So you want an anti-camera shake feature, and long battery life... Anything else? Movies? Price?[/QUOTE]

Not too concerned with movie feature or any of those things. I do need compact and lightweight as possible, it doesn't have to have features galore either. Just a crisp clear shot, lots of zoom and no more than $500.

Hmm... I don't know all the prices, but the Canon S1 seems to be a great one... It's got a lot of features (which you don't really want :D), but it has great zoom and pretty high megapixels (clearer bigger images)... There are sooo many on the market.:o