Being a complete dinosaur, I resisted digital for a long time, and when I got in I started with an early Sony--back when they used multiple media options of either a memory card OR a 1.4mb floppy disk.  In those days you could get six decent sized pix on the floppy, good for indoor photos, but the card was mandatory for outdoor use.  When that camera became hopelessly outdated I debated between a DSLR and a high-end compact.  Guess what I ended up selecting? 

A Canon G9.   I've got between 5k-5k images through mine.  I will say this, I find it a fantastic still life camera with all the control I ever wanted or need.  I personally have the digital zoom turned off and never use it.  I don't do nearly as much outdoor photography as I did when I was younger but I want to get back into it and so to jump start myself I took a local adult-ed class through the county career center this fall.

I acquired a DSLR from dad who bought it new a couple years ago, took maybe 200 pix and then put it away, settling back into his compact for everyday use.  He thought he might use the DSLR for car shows and such but he's aging and just not up to the traveling anymore.  It's a Pentax K100D Super.  I'm drawn to Pentax because in the old days I started with them and just never left.  Despite a hotel burglary 20 years ago that took most of my equipment, I still have four Pentax film bodies and a few lenses.  The bodies are older classics--I probably won't shoot film much at all again but the old lenses are all usable on the DSLR body.  Manual focus but this is not an issue, and the body even alerts when the lens focuses on all but maybe a couple of my oldest lenses due to the proper electrical connections. 

The K100D Super has image stabilization, which I learned to appreciate during our outdoor class field trips.  It has only 6.1mp, but I find that plenty useful--I don't blow up images for large prints.  It has full manual controls, muliti-metering, 1/400-30 second shutter, shoots RAW.  My complaints would be that the minimum ISO is 200 rather than 100.  Also, like the so-called pro-sumer camera it is, the white balance options are named rather than given in Kelvin numbers like a pro camera would be.  But then again--it was a camera buy I fell into and I'm not really complaining.

The DSLR lets me expand my outdoor photo options a great deal.  I took my G9 along also on the field trips we took during my photo class but the limited F-stops perhaps more than anything made the G9 less than satisfactory.  Probably more than the zoom limits, as I only took it out for close shooting. 

OTOH, the G9 is my still-life camera extraordinaire, for people, along with my hobbies--action figures, dolls, and slot cars, it takes wonderful shots.  Since my DSLR doesn't have live view, I'm spoiled by setting up shots through the Canon's large LCD.

K100D and G9--best of both world's for now!