I have been contemplating upgrading my digital point/shoot for awhile as well. Either a x12 extended zoom point/shoot style: Sony H5, Canon G3 or Pan Z50 or just going with a NikonDSLR and using the lense I have for my Nikon 35mm SLR. One thing I will say Nikon do make very good SLR cameras and as mentioned lense choice is second to none. My 35mm nikon has produced some amazing photo's and I couldn't be more pleased with it or the investment. Here the overwhelming majority of professional photographers run Nikon DSLR's so that must say something about their positioning.

As far as reviews I have found when it comes to the point and shoot styles Canon seems to be the odds on favorite. My mom has a G3 thats a few years old and it has been flawless, she isn't a picture taker or techy so must say Canon must being doing something right!! Though reviews are subjective and I would reccomend you getting your hands on them and finding what you like, you'll find when you disect the reviews most major brands get good marks but it is styling/fit/features of the reviewer that skew the final score. You can almost tell which ones have been canon, nikon, sony, etc users as they are used to their bells and whistles soanything short will make them downgrade them. My Nikon SLR is all metal body so it has some meat to I liked that my sister didn't and chose the canon instead. Putting photos side by each you usually can't tell, one exception is macro mode where my nikon is a clear winner based on the glass that the lense uses. My wife is a flower person so we actually use the macro feature a lot for photographing bloom stages, etc but on the other hand it is rarily used in my sisters case. So in the end personal preference and use should be the main focus not only what a 3rd party may say.

Good Luck

Yeah, Canon and Nikon really are at the top of the list when it comes to DSLR's. Olympus, Pentax and some of those are pretty close on their heels though.

It is a no brainer decision if you already have any Nikon lenses. All their film lenses from like 1996 forward are 100% compatible with their Digital cameras. The lenses dating all the way back to the 70's will work if you want them to, but that was way back in the day of manual focus! Their micro lenses are phenomenal.

Although I didn't have any Nikon film lenses I felt that Nikon really was smart in making their DSLR's fully backwards compatible with their old film lenses and that made me more comfortable that they wouldn't leave me with a handful of obsolete lenses sometime in the future like several of the other camera manufacturers did with their film lenses with the start of the digital age. It doesn't take very long to end up with more $$$ in your lenses than you have in your camera. I'm already there!