Was in same situation over Christmas, x amount by nowadays standards buys you something good, but a little extra you can get something very good and up to date, the difference between the two about£60.
Didnt want an SLR excluding the cost, bided my time with a list of cameras should they come up at the right price. In the end grabbed a great low light Nikon Coolpix P5100 with leather bag, telephoto convertor lens, adapter, wide angle lens and a 2Gb Sandisk Extreme 3 card. Noticed some of the reports or reviews are biased, think i made the right choice judging by the piccies it took. Macros are about the best on this model for a semi compact.
Make sure the drivers are available if running 64bit, gave my daughter my old Fuji 601 away more than twice what i paid for above. The aftersales service from Fuji i thought was a waste of time.
Nice piccies by the way Matt, i am after a mutt.
