for cameras with built-n,non-interchangeable lenses. See
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Panasonic/ for detailed specs on the many models.
Look first for a big lens, a lot of shown glass in the picture of the camera, because that will allow you to shoot under a wider range of lighting conditions.
Then check the specs fot a 10-12X OPTICAL zoom range. Digital zoom numbers are worse than meaningless, since all they mean is that the camera software will just crop out some percentage of the whole image before saving the data. You could claim a 10X digital aoom capability just by cropping away all but 1/10 of the original image. This will let you phot everything from a small distant detail to a wide land/cityscape.
I mention Panasonic DSLRs because they use lenses designed by Leitz which have long been regarded as better than excellent, and so far as I know, still are.
The third is Image Stabilization, which I think all of their more recent DSLRs include.
Tou may also want to look at the specs for Macro (closeup photos of small things). 1:1 is good, 1:4 not so much.
So, look at the pics for those that look like "real" cameras with wide aperture lenses, check the prices, and proceed down the list to find the possibles, and then read the reviews or use the side-by-side comparisons to help.
Also remember that the older ones, even a year old are often available used at half the listed price for new models, so check something like Ebay for anything that looks tempting but a bit pricey.
(edit 2 tiny typos)