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Are there any affordable digital compact cameras out there with a zoom lens?
Most of my photo-taking is done with my Smartphone but it really lacks a proper zoom feature. I'd like to purchase a cheap compact camera with a zoom lens. Is there anything out there you would recommend?
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Bonus if it has a USB-C interface. I hate carrying multiple cords around.
To be honest, that depends on your definition of "affordable". I'd suggest the Sony RX100vii.
Point-and-shoots are actually still going strong, but the bottom to middle part of the market has been absolutely decimated by smartphones. Casual users don't use point and shoots, and you're not going to convince them to. So the remaining point and shoot market is oriented towards two markets: photographers (professional or amateur) and content creators.
Photographers want a smaller camera that they can use more casually, and more discretely, for things like street, so they tend to have fast primes that are ~35mm FF equivalent. You're not going to find many zooms; the RX100vii is about as good as you'll get there.
Content creators want more specialized vlogging hardware, so that doesn't fit either.
Second rec for the RX100. If Mark VII is too expensive for you, Mark VI is also quite good (look at the 2nd hand market).
In general, if cost is a concern and there's not some other reason to insist on new, I have found that used photography equipment hits a much better price/performance tradeoff than new. Yesterday's pro/"prosumer" gear is way better than today's amateur gear.
Depends how far you go back. If I was looking for a point and shoot I would seriously consider EBay. However the Sony Alpha 7ii mirrorless I use today is in a whole other class than the Canon DSLR that I had in 2008 and I am still thinking about getting a new camera because of focus stacking and other new features.
I used to have a Canon Powershot and loved it. You can get affordable cameras used, there's a lot of them out there.
So, professionally I've got my hands on a C100 and 5DmkIV so I'm pretty much a Canon user but personally when it came time to upgrade my Rebel T5i, I went to check out the R50. It's quickly became a favorite. Combined with an adapter, I can still use my 200-400mm lens but the thing is tiny! I keep a 50mm on it most of the time, which is better than my phone camera but still compact enough to bring around.
When say "zoom lens", how far are you talking? Sports photography? Birds?
mostly scenic photography, but I'm missing out a lot on my smartphone with a lack of zoom.
I have a, now, old Olympus Stylus 1 that has an equivalent of 300mm zoom. It doesn't have USB-C, and it's only 12 megapixels with a small sensor, so I'd only get it if you can find it cheap used. Otherwise I'd probably go for what Minty recommended, the Panasonic ZS70, that too can probably be found used.
I mostly use it for casual wildlife and bird photography, and I feel it does a decent job for getting closer.
Some photos here
You have some extensive answers here, so I figure I'll throw in my 2 cents:
Look for superzoom cameras.
That is the term for cameras with fancy lenses without all the super-duper complicated inner machinery. Had the same question some years back and asked a photographer friend of mine, and this was their reply.
Absolutely the way to go for amateur photography. I have a Fujifilm finepix S1 with 60x zoom and 16mp. If I only take one camera that’s not my phone it’s that over my dslr. It’s just so much fun, especially with nature photography.
They also double as binoculars.
That's not much to go on. Cheap, compact, zoom. Panasonic ZS70 definitely fits these criteria, but just how zoom you want it to be?
I have the Panasonic ZS200D and I absolutely recommend it. It is not as cheap as the ZS70 though.
My camera has a optic zoom of 360mm. If I'm not mistaken, the ZS70's zoom is double that, even as a cheaper model.
I think you need to define "affordable" but there's an absolute shedload of slightly older digital cameras in the used market which are still perfectly good, depending what you want it for. Relatively low MPx counts on older hardware are not really a thing to worry about unless you're planning to print images on the side of a house.
There are still small compacts being made, although the market is much smaller than it used to be. There are professional cameras like the Fuji X100 series (which is glorious) but they are not affordable by anyone's standards - but there are also things like the Kodak PixPro and Canon Powershot Zoom devices. I love the look of the latter. You might get a used one for less money.
Look for something on classifieds like Facebook Marketplace. Lots and lots of people are dumping their old point-and-shoots and there are some good deals to be had.