look at "superzooms"
i just recommended a Nikon P90 to a collegue and he's absoloutley loving it.
(its got monster zoom, awesome macro, and all the manual controls)
you may want to look at a Canon G9 (it will be cheaper) or the new Canon G10.
however, i learned all the manual stuff with a fujifilm finepix S5600 and got if for about US$100
so you could potentially save yourself a couple hundred if you look at other brands, or even second hand "bridge" cameras on E-bay
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