Wow, my thread really brought out some strong emotions here, with everyone defending their little p&s. What's important in the end is that everyone now realizes that good photos can be taken with p&s cameras. Even within that category there are drastic differences like image stabalization, bracketing, automatic correction for red eye & backlighting. A lot of the better p&s cameras have glass lenses with good optical quality. I would't feel as comfortable going to an office Christmas part with my Nikon DSLR, zoom lens & SB600 on the hotshoe as I would with a small pocket camera. Walking on the beach with a light rain doesn't work well with the more expensive SLR either.

Point & shoot cameras take excellent snaps & top notch photos when combined with an experienced photographer. They save all their shots in jpg or tiff format but few if any allow for RAW photos. Still, they do good job for their owners at a fraction of the cost of a DSLR. I've had as many as 3 p&s cameras at one time & never went anywhere without one.

If you decide to upgrade to a DSLR you'll gain a huge variety of optional equipment. For me the most important accessory is my polorizing filter for outside shots with skies & water. RAW format allows the DSLR owner to correct white balance and pull much more detail from shadow areas or overexposed shots. There's just more data there.

You guys & gals are a great bunch of people that obviously love photography. Get out there & shoot and don't let anyone tell you that you don't have a "real" camera.