It's quite amazing how good of a digital camera $200 will buy these
days. I started shooting 35mm film in high school, and progressed
through various 35mm camera systems over the years. I was a fairly
early adopter to digital. I bought one of the very first Olympus
C3030's to hit my town in the spring of 2000. $1000 for a 3mp point
and shoot. Holy crap. But that little camera completely renewed a
waning interest in photography for me. The key for me is what can be
done with modest skills and inexpensive software in digital post
processing. It's just so easy to make a marginal photograph decent and
a good photograph outstanding.

But I never liked handling the point and shoot. I missed the feel,
intuitive controls, and responsiveness of my 35mm film cameras. So
earlier this year I bought two new cameras. I bought another Olympus
point and shoot and a Nikon D70 DSLR. The Oly is a 4mp water resistant
model I purchased at Costco for $200. I bought it simply to always
have in the boat bag. It's small, lightweight, water resistant, and
takes amazingly good pictures. But I hate shooting with it. It just
doesn't act, feel, or respond like a real camera to me. The controls
are diminuitive and the menus are illogical to me. The Nikon on the
other hand, felt like an old friend the first time I held it in my
hands. Completely intuitive and instantly responsive. Therefore, I've
shot thousands of shots with the Nikon compared to maybe several
hundred with the Oly this year. But there's been times I've gotten
great shots simply because the Oly was in proximity while the Nikon was
at home, so having both seems to work well for me.