im thinking of buying a camera in price range 200 to 300 dollars, What do you recommend?

The canon powershot S5IS is a great camera. I took it on my 6 week backpacking trip. I took two 2gig cards and had plenty of room. The upload is great. It is super easy to use for beginners but has lots of growth potential as you get better. The older models (S4 or S3) are just a great and cost less.

65% of all digital cameras are from all manufactures are made in Hong Kong from a company called Premier Digital Imaging. The only cameras made in house, by their own R&D department is Canon, Nikon, Samsung (sometimes purchases from Premier) and some from Fuji, and some from Kodak. So obviously Canon and Nikon for example will be a little more, not much, and of course carry great products. Most digital cameras are the same these days with electronic technology. However, the most important thing to keep a list of is, Optical image stabalization (no digital stabalization), Optical zoom not digital, you dont need higher then 10 megapixel unless your a pro, fits nice in your hand, good easy menu to read and operate, large range ISO, and any other features you personally may want like MP3 or Video recording. CCD chips and CMOS chips are very similiar as in image quality unless you zoom it to 100% and go over it with a fine tooth comb. I own a Canon 5D and Canon still uses CMOS censors, one because they read and write faster, and also to keep the cost down. However, color and sharpness is BAIRLEY affected, not noticeable. So don't let someone talk you into paying more for a camera with a CCD chip. Thats the very basic important things to remember. Hope that somewhat helps.....

panasonic Fz8 fits your price range. Great value for a camera in that price range. not too compact since it's a SLR-like camera.

as far as memory capacity, it accepts SDHC cards so that's 4GB and up. SD only goes up to 2GB

im using fuji finepix s5600 10x zoom 5.1mp check it out...