advanced super-zoom vs. digital SLR... what should I get?

Ron Hunter wrote:
Vidar Grønvold wrote:
On 4 Sep 2006 17:57:08 -0700, wrote:

I'm looking to take a step up to a more serious digital camera and
I'm trying to decide how far I want to go. The big decision is
whether to go with an advanced super-zoom camera (like the Sony
DSC-H5) or to go all the way to a digital SLR. The step up in
price to the digital SLR is quite a hefty step, so I want to make
sure that I'm really going to get my money's worth out of the SLR
(I'd like to spend under or around $1000).

Here are some of the questions I have:
- Am I really going to notice the difference in image quality in,
say, and 8 x 10?
- How do the advanced super-zoom cameras do in low light
situations
vs. the SLR? I've heard that SLRs are better, but is it a big
difference?

Any other reasons that I should go one way or the other?

I'm planning to go dSLR myself. Pentax k100d I think. That's a
rather small cam with built-in stabilzation. I have some small
p&s like Canon A620 and Samsung NV3 which can give me good macro
shots without flash in low light, but ONLY if I put the camera on
a tripod. A dSLR will be more problematic to carry. The image
quality as such may not be so much better, but the WAY BIGGEST
advantage , IMO, will be the ability to control depth of field
(with a large aperture lens). Lots of shots becomes much more
interesting with blurred background because the main subject is
what the photo is about and you don't want a lot of things in
the background busying and messing up the pic. I have tried to
blur backgrounds in an editor, but that bokeh looks like ****.
Old primes for Pentax can be had on ebay for 50 dollars. You
don't have to carry around a lot of lenses either. Pick e.g an
50mm f1.4, zoom with your feet, and accept that you are limited
to what the lens you carry can do. You miss some, but get great
shots.

Zoom with your feet? Try that getting a good shot of the Bainbridge
ferry, or the north side of the Grand Canyon from the Arizona
side....

Oy!

Grin.

I can't carry a heavy DSLR, and kit of lenses anymore (wouldn't when
I
could), so I use a P&S can find that the pictures I get are vastly
better than no pictures at all. Not the solution for everyone, but
the one that works for me.