Some really interesting stuff here.
For my £0.02, I have a DSLR (Nikon D50 - no RAW format
) and an Olympus Mju 720SW point and shoot. My, ahem,
photo comp-winning shot was taken with the Mju, but I infinitely prefer the results of the Nikon. It's only 6.1MP (a tiddler these days in pixel terms) but has such good processing that the results really are superb. The lens matters too obviously.
My main area for research will now be post-processing (along with maybe a DSLR body upgrade so I can shoot in RAW), and flash. Built in flashes give horribly harsh results at closer ranges, and are poor at longer ranges in my experience, so I want to get a flashgun and experiment with bouncing the light, flash filters etc.
Digital is where it's at but I do miss the art of properly 'crafting' a shot with a film SLR (you had to get it right then!), and using B and W film etc, to achieve good results. I used to love playing with exposures, apertures and getting good, grainy, atmospheric high contrast B and W shots on Ilford HP5 film. Just a look I love for landscapes etc.