Camera Help

peyton

Well, my Canon S400 finally met its maker the other day and now Canon wants $138.41 to fix it and it is no longer even worth that much.. -SCREW THAT! I have been looking to upgrade and what a good excuse. I have this one down pat and understand everything on it. I would like to kind of get above the typical "point-and-shoot" cameras, but still need something with a little bit of this capability for my parents to use. I can't afford a really expensive camera but I am not looking for a cheap one either. My budget is $400- no exceptions. I want a camera that can zoom well and make the ducks look close from far away but still have great picture quality and crispness. Also want to be able to "freeze" the birds in the air while they are flying. Looking through canon, Sony, Konica Minolta, Panasonic etc. and after reading many reviews, I find many people referring back to Panasonic's Lumix fz7 (6 mega pixel). All the other companies have there similar version (Konica Minolta is my second choice) but supposedly it seems to have the best lenses being a 12x optical zoom which I guess is equivalent to a 430 mm lenses. It also has a 4x digital zoom but am aware that digital zoom is poor. Anybody know about this camera or have any opinions? I am not looking to spend anywhere over $400 for a camera. I know there are quite a few talented photographers on this site and was hoping to get some advice. Maybe Pit boss or Scott or LD or some of you other good photographers can chime in and help.
Is there anything digital that will still let me buy separate lenses that are super clear and have a lot of zoom??

I am new to these higher cameras so please feel free to fill me in.
Thanks
Deyton