Best digital camera for around $500?

i wanna do a lot of work through photoshop...

my suggestion
go to yahoo shopping
digital cameras
digital camera GUIDE
be sure to check titles on the left side
the guide should answer your questions

yes best from sony cyber shot w 80 for abt 350 to 400 $

Nikon D40. It's a camera with easy auto modes that will grow as you grow.
http://www.stunningnikon.com/picturetown...

Check out this review.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm

And here's a very reliable Ebay seller who has a buy-in-now price of $469.95. You could also try the auction prices from them as well.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-D40-Digital-SL...

Auction items:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll...

Hope this is helpful.

I would say the Olympus SP-550UZ. It's 7.1 mp. It has 18x optical, 5.5x digital zoom, for a total of 100x the zoom. Dual image stabilization, 23 different scene modes, a pre-capture mode at 15 fps. (frames per second) As well as a movie mode. You can also edit your pics right there on the cam. Go find it in a store and play around with it. See what it's about. You'll be stoked on this cam! I got mine at Best Buy. $499.00 but I've seen them on-line for a lot cheeper. Shop around.

Are you ready to jump to a Dslr and spend a few hundred on lenses each time or are you looking for a good quality camera for taking pics where ever you go without having to carry around alot of lenses just for that special shot? for $500 you can get some nice quality cameras. try these on for size:
http://www.trendycams.com/Panasonic_DMC-...
http://www.trendycams.com/Fujifilm_Finep...
http://www.trendycams.com/pricerange/401...
i own the panasonic and the fujifilm and these cameras take excellent photos...but i included a few other choices just for comparision...

Okay, now that you have read all the biased reviews above, check out this site:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Digital_cameras/...

You can search by price, and them by highest rating. You can also read unbiased customer reviews.

My favorite cameras are FujiFilm FinePix. Superb cameras. But then again, I'm biased!