Digital camera help??

i highly doubt you are going to get what you are looking for with a 150 dollar camera, you can get some pretty decent automatic point and shoot cameras but they are up there in the 400-600 dollar range from my experience, and then you move into the dSLR's.. nikons got some good coolpix cameras that are pretty sleek and quality.

Yeah I know what you are looking for. You might be a little hard pressed with your price range. I'd recommend a used d70s or rebel but that's going to be a little more expensive. As for point and shoot, a lot of them will have the shutter lag and won't have more than 1.5 fps.

hmm sorry about that link, but go on panasonic's camera page then go to the bottom its the DMC - FS5R

thanks! i know about DSLR's but they are too expensive and i dont want something that big...that panny looks good ill look into it, but thats definately more what im looking for. anyone else have any suggestions? thanks to you 2^

the problem with most if not all point and shoots is that you can't 1 choose where you want to focus easily, as you would have to do in the picture above--most have a larger aperture to get that shallow depth of field but I"ve found it difficult to put that plane of focus where you want it because there is usually no manual focus.  and 2 they will almost definitely have shutter lag, so it's possible, but difficult to shoot action with, in that you won't be able to close the shutter exactly when you want to unless you somehow get some perfect sense of how long the lag is, which is almost impossible.  basically, you're gonna have to get a dslr if you want to do the things you're wanting to.
otherwise, there are good point and shoots, they just don't have the ability to get as technically detailed as you're looking to.  I have a canon powershot a560 which can still take shots that are as good a quality as those taken with my nikon d50 dslr, mostly landscapes and other still lifes.  with that said, i find it much more difficult to focus on a specific focal plane with a shallow depth of field, as in the example you had, and its shutter lag makes it really difficult to take action shots with. 
basically you're going to have to spend a minimum of 400 to get a dslr (don't be afraid of used ones, just make sure you know their quality before you buy, older cameras really aren't that far behind in technology as the new ones unless you're looking for real techy stuff that in your position you probably won't need).... sorry-hope that helps

thanks man, that helps a lot...unfortunately i cant afford a dslr. even a used one. so i guess im just looking for a point and shoot that can do action shots decently and has good picture quality. any suggestions?

^thanks, anyone else?

yea look for a canon g9 on ebay or the g10 is out, but a little expensive

word that g9 looks sick,exactly wat im looking for. hopefully i can snag one for cheap

cute model