I won't disagree with the SLR comment... lenses are key and I'm a novice.

I used DPREVIEW as well to find my camera.

I got a Fuji F-31 FD for my wife as a "purse" camera and we have been VERY pleased with it. If you go pixel peeping you'll see some problems, but it's pretty impressive. For less than $250 I like it and it can go anywhere. I'm not looking to publish my photo's in a magazine. Here are some examples.
They are reduced to 800 x 600 to match TBN's sizes. I didn't to any cropping, just straight out of the camera.

The one of the motorcycle with the flag is a 15 second exposure in the dark outside at night.

Obviously there are limitations to what this can do and big zooms are not in the cards for a 3x lens.