I was mistaken on the file size, at 720 for 23 minutes it was 4.1 GB's. Sorry about that.

As I looked at some of the 1080 camera's I noticed that some said 15 minutes max record time for videos. Does anyone know what the file size for a 1080 15 minute video is??

IIRC I used to hang out over at dpreview. Those are good sites, I also like steves-digicams as well.

Ultimately though they'll tell you about how the camera is over all, but if you really want to know about the pics, google them, there's plenty of places with real world shots to look at. Ideally at 100%.

I'm a big fan of the Panasonic Lumix TZ series (erm ZS in the US I think) they're pocket super zoom cameras (15x optical zoom) and the newer ones record in 720p with stereo sound, provided you have a fast enough SD card. The batteries are also custom and rechargeable so you get more use out of it before it runs out than you would with standard AA or AAA batteries. It also yields good point & shoot results with a bit of advanced customization too.

SLR is probably a bit beyond what you want. They yield the best results but at the same time you have to pay out a lot for lenses and have to be prepared to change them on the fly or set out with a plan. I have a nice SLR but my TZ-10 goes everywhere with me because it fits in my pocket, and so it gets more usage and with it's zoom capabilities it still fulfils much of what I look for.

Edit: Here's a review of the one I have on dpreviews, it's the TZ10 (aka ZS7) there's a newer model out now but, to be honest, it's not really worth getting over the ZS7 for the amount of new content it has and because there's a newer model you can generally pick up the ZS7 cheaper.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Q210grouptravelzoom/page9.asp

I don't want to spend that much since I am also buying a laptop. I would like to keep it under $200 ideally. As for where I am going, any neighboring country to Georgia really... Turkey, Poland, etc. I don't think my stipend will be enough to go much further.

Congrats on the China thing, I thought about China or South Korea but Eastern Europe appeals to me much more on a cultural basis. Also I don't have to get TEFL certified, which is a money saver. All I am waiting on is my damn passport to arrive.

Thanks, $200 should be enough for a relatively high end P&S, but probably not for a bridge camera.

I'd recommend looking closely at Canon, Nikon and Fuji as they seem to be the best most of the time.

From the looks of it, if you're willing to settle for 720p video rather than 1080p the Canon PowerShot SX150 IS looks to be more or less exactly what you're looking for. It's got a longish lens, decent noise at 1600 ISO and uses AA batteries if you run out of charge.

I obviously don't own it, but the reviews look good and the sample images I've seen look promising. It should give you plenty of flexibility without breaking the bank.

I'd definitely recommend looking a bit closer and actually holding one, but it's definitely worth your consideration.

On a side note, I almost put in for a job in Georgia, but the current job more or less fell in my lap as far as the application process went.

Yeah, similar ones listed above by others looked good as well. Probably gonna test a few of them from that family and go from there.

I thought about Hong Kong, that's probably the only Asian one that lit my fire a bit. Europe is just much more interesting to me overall though. As far as I know I am a lock to be approved, to the point they already put me on the list, but my stupid passport needs to come! Arg, it's annoying me sooooo much. It's been 8 weeks now since I applied for it.

That would be wise. Years ago I was going to buy a Nikon Coolpix 5700, it looked good and had good specs, but when I went into a shop and held it, the thing didn't fit my hands at all, not even close.

Ultimately, the specs are good, but there's more to it and ultimately you'll be the one using them. At least as far as Nikon and Canon goes they rarely release a camera that's a genuine turkey, most of the time if it isn't satisfactory it's because you've chosen the wrong model.
Same here, I'm guaranteed a spot, provided the Chinese government extends me a visa.I'm hoping that they'll grant me a reentry or two as being there for a full year is a long time.

With Georgia you don't even need a visa for the first year. Also they pay for your airfare to have a 3 week vacation back in America halfway through the year. If you want to stay longer than a year then they need to do a visa application for you.

I'm waiting on my own stupid government to get their act together and send me my passport. It says "4-6 weeks" and this is week 8 for me. Supposedly it's because they had to request a newer birth certificate, but whatever...

My brother has an SX200 IS. It does cost more than $200, but I know for certain that it can take good pictures even when I'm drunk out of my mind. Since the SX150 IS is pretty similar to that one (newer as well), I reckon it won't be a letdown. Just make sure to get a memory card as well.

Good luck, I got thwarted by them when I wanted to go to Russia. They apparently changed the period of time that a passport is good for after I got mine to be 10 years for minors which left me in a position where I didn't have a valid passport and only found out about it when I looked during the application process. I was not happy.

As far as the camera goes, you're going to want IS, and take a look at high ISO sample photos. The last thing you're going to want is to be wanting to take a photo and be unable due to inadequate light. Most cameras in the $100-200 range these days should be fairly decent. Especially if you stick to Canon, Nikon or Fuji.