I’ve spent a good portion of the evening bouncing around various camera reviews and specifications, comparing all the various suggestions made in my comments today (many thanks to all of you!). Right now, I’m leaning towards one of two possibilities…
Option one is essentially what I was looking for recommendations for, a more immediately affordable smaller “point-and-shoot” camera. Right now, I’m leaning towards the Canon PowerShot A80 (here’s the DPReview listing). Small, good combination of features, a little more expensive than I was aiming for (\$381.52[*]/\$385[**]) but it looks to be worth it.
Option two is if I can hold off a little longer, save a bit more, and get paid back for a loan I made to a friend a few years back — in which case, I’ll go for a more powerful camera. While I’ve had my eye on the Canon Digital Rebel (DPReview listing) (\$1100.90[*]/\$927.99 [body only]) for a while now, Nikon just announced their D70 (DPReview listing) (\$1114.49[][*]) which looks to handily best the Digital Rebel and should be out soon — but the Minolta DiMAGE A1 (DPReview listing) (\$754.19[][*]/\$736.40) is really catching my eye. It doesn’t have the lens-swapping capabilities of the other two, but really, I’m not likely to have the ability (financially or photographically) to worry about that for a long time to come, and the number of features it packs in for the price is fairly astounding.
I’ll keep looking, though, to see if something else looks like a better deal. I’ve gotta come up with the funds first, after all. ;)
[*]{#mcr1} Average of all appropriate results out of the first ten hits in a Froogle search.
[**]{#mcr2} Average of the five prices listed on DPReview’s pages.
iTunes: “Wiggedy Wack” by Utah Saints from the album Two (2001, 1:28).