Jason - I have borrowed a Olympus sp550 from my boss for the last few days.
Very briefly, as I am new to all this also!
Plus points:
The 18X Zoom. Many mags will tell you that its not great quality and a bit blurry at long range - its good enough - believe me. Its more than good enough, and is the best thing about this model. The image stabilization is fine for amateurs like you and me, rather than paying many, many times more for a proper DSLR and all the rest.
Negative point:
Very poor macro facility - my phone is better! You want to take a photo of a Ladybird or fly - forget it with this camera.
Could do with autofocus as well (or maybe I just didnt find that in my few days with the phone).
Try shooting through branches at a bird for example, and the camera will just focus on the branches, not the bird - very frustrating!
So (in my opinion) (and DO bear in mind I'm very new to all this digital stuff),
if you want a mega powerful, mega cheap zoom, consider this (or its twin - the Fujifilm finepix s8000fd).
If you want a little more control over your photos, best leave it be.
Thats the shortest, most basic camera review ever eh? (From a digital newby!)
Anyway, hope that helps a little?
Doug