Choosing a camera for my mother

[lasercheese]

I am getting my mother a camera for a gift. She likes to take photos and videos of her granddaughter as well as amateur nature shots. I am tempted by the zoom of the Panasonic ZS40 & 50, Canon SX710 and Nikon S9900. She likes to zoom in and crop bird shots. The only thing is when I look at user reviews they are all mixed for these camera as far as quick point and shoot quality and low light shots. I want the zoom, but not if these camera will not be able to be picked up quickly and snap a decent shot of her granddaughter indoors. Are these cameras capable of that or should I be looking at other models with less zoom to get versatile image quality?. If so is there a camera with good low light shooting that has a decent zoom (doesn't have to be 30x)? Looking to spend approx $200 - $300. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mankar Kameran]

I got my wife a Samsung NX mini a little over a year ago and she loves it. You can swap lens out so she has a standard and a long distance one. The viewing screen can flip up so if she wants to do self shots you can set a timer and see a preview. It also has wifi so you can upload to facebook or a computer with wifi. The picture quality is really good, too. She's actually used it to take engagement photos that turned out good. You can crop images right on the camera, too, if you want. She really loves it so just an idea.