photography buffs, help me buy a DSLR camera

[kerowo]

Point and shoots usually have pretty bad shutter lag, so you tend to miss shots because they've moved after pressing the button. The lens quality isn't as good as the more expensive lenses that come with a DSLR. They are going to be much slower, so you'll need more light to take hand held shots. You'll probably be able to see lens distortions at more of the zoom range than with a DSLR lens. The sensor in the camera is going to be noisier than in a DSLR at the same ISO.

Generally, PASs are for people who want to take snap shots for their web page and aren't very serious about photography. The cameras that have been talked about in this thread are pro-sumer and are for when people start taking it more seriously.

Can you take stunning pictures with a PAS? Yup. Just not as easily and not in as wide a range of lighting situations as with a DSLR.