This thread reminded me of my own pawn shop camera buy of a couple years ago, a Panasonic DMC-FZ5 which I believe I paid under $50.00 for. The Panasonic has been a good camera with 5mp, 16x optical zoom, image stabilization and electronic view finder. Effectively a 36-435 equivalent 35mm lens, so it says.

However I use a Canon A1000is as my hiking and touring camera because it is small and light with two AA lithium batteries and has an optical viewfinder.