I did it! I bought the Fuji s602a, and now I have to wait for fedex to deliver it. With the holiday that means it will be next week. HO HUM!
At any rate, I think I spent every waking hour for 3 days researching dpreview.com, reading owner reviews and asking questions on the individual forums. Trying to hone in on an affordable camera that would WOW me, and I think I have found it.
Here is a link to a photographer that uses the s602 so that you can see what clear pictures it takes...Clearly his artistic ability isn't to bad either.
This camera was recently replaced a few months ago by the finepix 7000, however the 7000 is more than double the price (can get it for about $450 now, started at $750 I think). And when I compared identical photos side by side with the 7000 camera, I actually think the 620 is better.
Here is a link to the specs on the camera. I hope this is the first step to much better portraits (if you all could see what I have been working from you would cringe)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec...ixs602zpro.asp
Happy NEW YEAR!