Do you really want to buy an "end of life" product just to save money? ... or do you have some other reason?

No...it just seemed like a good deal and I liked the features a lot...swivel LCD screen, small size, decent zoom. I don't really know a whole lot about cameras, because my only real experience is with the point-and-shoot kind that everybody uses.

The other camera I'm looking at is the Fujifilm FinePix S7000 Zoom, which is going for about $530 now...so I could get that camera and a couple nice 512mb CF cards and stay within budget. It's a 6.3 megapixel camera and it's slightly bigger and looks more on the "professional side" to me. Here's a link:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms7000/

I've been studying up on what's out there, but I'm still just kind of jumping in, so I don't know everything that's available. If you wouldn't mind making a recommendation...what I'd like is a minimum of 5 megapixels, less than $600 or $700, a decent zoom, and not too big...I want to carry it around when I hang out with my friends, and I want to do some "fun" photography with it. The s7000 is kind of fat compared to the Nikon 5400 or the Kodak I've used. Here's a picture of the s7000's size:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms7000/Images/inhand02.jpg

That and it has a lot more buttons and gizmos and I haven't found a book on photography/digital photography that's very good yet (another recommendation? :). But, if it's a good camera and it's worth it, I could learn to put up with it's size :) I just kind of want a decent camera to learn on...I don't know if I'd ever get a camera beyond this one, so I want to make it a pretty decent one that I can use for years to come.

I am open to suggestions :)

Thanks!
-Dave