lili, don't know if you know, but lightroom will work with the fuji raw (and lightroom 2 just released). recommended.
ah, as for the best intermediate camera, that opens up my desire to write a whole essay on the subject.
now, if you're going to turn photos into paintings, frankly it doesn't matter what you use. that process ends any worry about noise, resolution, etc. 4 meg jpegs transformed can be blown up into billboards.
however, straight digital photography presents difficulties (as we all know) with small cameras.
i have or have had in this middle range: canon g3 and g5, sony 717, leica digilux 2, and the fuji s6000.
operation-wise, they operate slowly and have lots of noise at iso 400. except for the fuji. it's fast generally and 800 iso perfectly usable with some noise-reduction. you can get results even at 1600.
that said, i love all these cameras. each gives a distinctive look and color. the g3 will give you sharp 3d type pics with a certain kind of intimacy. the leica makes elegant portraits (great lens), the sony very distinctive in its colors. all of these have a 2.0 lens. makes up for the lack of high iso in lots of cases.
alas, the fuji 2.8. but balanced by the high iso. also the only one with a ten time zoom. (all shoot raw and all read rather slowly.) it's a more painterly camera. read flat or graphic images. that's one reason i like it.
my advice is go to
www.keh.com and look through the used digital cameras. all the older cameras like the g3 a great bargain. they give a two month warranty and 14 day return. you can try them out and send them back. there's no substitute for this, as your own predilection is the ultimate judge.
above 6 megs all cameras in this range deteriorate, in my view. go to
www.pbase.com and do their camera search. you can see literally thousands of pics taken with these older cameras. i bought the leica because it was obviously (to my eye) distinctive.
new cameras are a lot faster in operation, so it depends how important that is to you.
www.dpreview.com has reviews of every camera you can think of.
anyway, this has been my experience. i've been tempted by the olympus 5050 more that the 8080 for it's faster lens. but i can't make myself work with one more camera system!
best,
wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp