Well it was some kind of special thing where HP was coming out with 2 cameras (I thought they were their first - maybe they were the first "compact" cameras or something?? or maybe it was the first time they were gong to sell them at  my husbands store?  I forget I guess.) and my husband got a huge discount b/c they wanted employees to buy it and then hopefully love it so they could sell more of them.  Then we went to buy extra accessories this past year and all the HP stuff was on close-out b/c the store said they aren't making cameras anymore.  I don't know why these 2 were so special, but they were the "first" of something!

Canon seems to come up a lot these days.  My friend has a canon and I thought it was took much better pictures than mine!  I get discounts btw, so sales usually don't count for me.  300$ in my budget includes all applicable accessories - batteries, memory cards and cases.  I do have requirements though - the camera has to be good!  I wouldn't go through all this for a cheap one.

The only thing I know for sure I don't want is a touch screen.  I played with some of those at the store an NO way am I fooling with a touch screen when I'm tyring to capture a quick picture.  It will slow me down for sure.

Thanks for the advice.  I just gotta decide if it's worth the money now or i I should wait.  But the more I think about it, it would be nice to have it before vacation and before my friend's wedding :)