Kodak DC290(2000)

This camera has perhaps the best film I've seen in a digital camera - it gets skin tones nearly perfect, and seems to handle most of the challenging conditions.

It doesn't handle wide scenes too well - I think this may be a problem with the jpeg. Especially trees.

Olympus C700(2002)

I quite like my new olympus C700. My personal requirements were:

1. lots of optical quality
2. standard memory (compact flash or smart media)
3. AA batteries (not special ones)
4. TTL focus (This means I can use off the shelf diopters, the best way to get macro shots IMHO)
5. variable flash
6. smart multipoint focusing/ macro priority
7. aperture and shutter priority.

everything else is not really interesting for me.

If your needs and budget match mine (<$1300) then the C720(newer model) is a good choice