lach,
Don't listen to the analogue SLR guys. Forget film, you will learn waaay faster about the fundamentals of photography with a digi as you can take 100s of times more photos and get instant feedback on what you take. I've had both and I've been into photography for over 20 years. Many digital cameras will give you full manual controls these days, even on a budget model (esp. the Canon A75, A85, A95
).
If you are going to spend $500 your main decision is whether you should get a 3-4 megapixel 3x zoom jobbie or a somewhat bigger 10x zoom job.
Got that? good.
Don't get a super tiny thing like an Canon IXUS or Pentax Optio unless you really need something that fits in a shirt pocket as you'll sacrifice image quality and features. Don't get too hung up on megapixels either. 3-4 will almost certainly be more than enough, but more is nice of course but I doubt you'll miss it.
If you want a camera you can take out on rides, parties, pub, holidays etc. you'll want something relatively compact - that means a 3x zoom camera. Trust me on this one, it's a real hassle to keep taking a chunky thing out of a special camera bag - you'll want something that will fit comfortably in a jacket pocket if possible. 3x will be enough for 95% of your photos anyway. In this class the Canon A75, A85, A95 are the way to go. You can also get wide, tele and close-up lens attachments for them.
In the $500 10x zoom camera range I think its a shootout between Fujifilms S5500 you mention or the Olympus C-760. As well as more zoom they bigger lenses, hence better quality photos, but you probably wont notice the difference. You will be sacrificing a lot of convenience because of the size of the thing though.
All of these cameras that I mention have the goods in terms of features such as full manual controls multiple shots and decent shutter lag.
There you have it. go to
www.dcresource.com
and
www.dpreview.com
And research Canon A75, A85, A95, Fuji S5500 and Olympus C-760.
My recommendation for the top value-for-money camera with lots of manual controls that will should always get the job done is the Canon A75.
I've had an A70. it rocked. I'm about to get an A95 (but I would like a G6).
Other things you might like to think about is the batteries. AAs are the cheaper and more conveient than wierdarse proprierty Li-ion batteries so get a camera that takes AAs if you can. AA NiMh batteries have come leaps and bounds in the last year or two.
Remember what the marketing hype doesn't tell you is that 6Mp is not double the resolution of 3Mp. Resolution is proprotional to the square root of the number of pixels. 6Mp is only about 40% more resolution than 3Mp and 4Mp is only %10 more res than 3Mp!
