NoxDineen

Hi there. I don't know of any cameras that take a direct charge, they all use either proprietary or AA batteries, but you can always toss extras in your camera bag (spare rechargeables usually cost around $50, which isn't fun but the first time your battery dies while you're out it feels worth it). Likewise, I can't think of a new compact digital camera that has a viewfinder. The LCDs are getting bigger, and brighter so you can actually see them in the sunlight, so I think camera manufacturers feel safe removing the optical viewfinder (in compacts it usually only gave 80ish% frame coverage anyway, making the LCD a better option for setting up your photo).

I know a lot of people tend to gravitate towards the big camera names, like Canon and Nikon (and they still do make the best dSRL cameras), but for a low price camera I honestly think that the Panasonic Lumix series is amazing. The lenses are made by Leica, which has produced some of the highest quality camera lenses around for a long time and the features and image quality are consistently very good.

The Panasonic Lumix FS3 is an 8 megapixel ultra-compact. It comes with a ton of "scene modes" that pick the right image parameters to get a good photo, and does include options like sepia, black & white, vivid colors, etc. The cheapest I could find it was at Costco (which I suppose only helps if you or a friend has a membership):

http://www.costco.com/Browse/ProductSet.aspx?Prodid=11281123&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|79&N=4001482&Mo=5&No=3&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=4471&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=