I've like never bought a camera before, I need a small one, preferably black, that can take photos of people in motion (playing tennis). Budget would be no more than £100 but I can spend over if it's worth it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

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Mark,

I liked Cnet it has lots of good reviews which I found useful including comparisons with its competitors, they are not that jargon laden so that the non-geek community can understand them with ease.

You've probably figured this out already, but you'll need

-  a decent zoom (optical - digital zoom is pointless and just reduces the quality) to take good shots from across the court (or from the stands).
- you'll need to crank up the shutter time to at most 1/1000 of a second (I prefer 1/1500), otherwise your shots'll be blurred (anti-shake doesn't work for fast action shots).
- and both of those mean that a lot less light gets in through the lens, which means you have to crank up the ISO (effectively the responsiveness to light). Which means you need a camera which performs well at ISO 400 or ISO 800 (or higher).
- Megapixels: work out what size you'll need, by working out what you want to do with the prints. Anything above 7 (ie. about 3500x2000 pixels) is near-perfect for printing up to A4.

I know it's all pretty obvious stuff, but sometimes it's easy to overlook.

I forgot to mention that you'll need a camera with either a "sports mode" or a way to over-ride the automatic shutter speed and aperture (that's all a sports mode normally does anyway). Otherwise when you zoom in, the camera will assume you want a slower speed () to get a better exposed shot rather than a fast speed to reduce blur.

Functionally, nothing really jumps out in that kinda price range, but I'd certainly try out the Canon A590 IS first.
Good zoom; performance at ISO200 is apparently good and 400 acceptable; AA batteries (best for avoiding emergencies); good pedigree & support; bit plasticky, but what do you expect at that price?

It's big brother, the A720 IS is another option with more optical zoom.
And Panasonic's Lumix LZ8 is probably worth checking if you don't like the Canons, though the image quality may not be as good.

Sorry I'm sounding really nerdy about this, but I spend a lot of time trying to get the best available results from compact cameras (there's nothing worse than hiking to somewhere like Machu Picchu and then coming back with crap photos).

Enjoy ...

AA batteries - I like 'em:
- high-specced rechargeables are pretty good;
- it's much cheaper to get a backup set of rechargeables than a backup lithium;
- you can use them in other equipment;
- and if you have an emergency (ie. take 200 shots more than you thought you would) you can always buy some.

But that's just a personal opinion.
Good luck, either way (and post back to let us know).

I'm also interested in getting a good camera. I have a Pentax Optio E10, its 6 megapixels 3x zoom and AA batteries. Its ok nothing special, just a cheapie to use in general. But it goes through batteries like nothing else. I want to get one without batteries and a better zoom. ALso its really slow at taking the picture. I often try to take a pic of something moving and miss it. I'm maybe looking to spend around 250euros. Any suggestions and what should I be asking about/for?

Oh and its not specifically for action shots. Just a reliable quick taking with good zoom camera. And I only really use 640 x 320 prints!

Looking for a new camera too because Wimbly's grass is blue on my camera

Liking this one and it owns yours, Mark!