Hi Eileen,
I wasn't trying to do a conversion, but yes they are so much easier. Where I used to take a few pictures with the film camera and then find a few were not quite right, I do now find myself taking "loads" of shots and then selecting the best and throwing the rest away.
I still would not bother with photo paper and printers just yet, it is still worth getting the prints from somebody like Boots or Asda, most are running 10p a print offers and printing yourself runs about 30-50p a print, and the quality of print still has some catching up to do, give it a couple of years.
£1000 will get you a VERY good camera, the S304 got good reviews and cost £350 two years ago (even though out of date it's being offered at £120). Costs are coming down and specs are going up. It has been basically replaced with the S3100 (which has 4m pixels), the rest of the spec seems the same.
For example, a quick online check gives a price of $599 for the S7000 6m pixel camera (only x3 zoom though). Kellkoo are seeling it online at £415 with 512Mb card & 1 hour charger & batteries with a spare set of 2300maH batteries. To compare Fuji cameras see their site
http://www.fujifilm.com.
If I was to buy again soon I'd probably go for the S5100 with 4m pixels and x10 zoom, but you must not let me sway you, Fuji are excellent lower cost cameras, if you plan on spending the full £1000 look at the others, Cannon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Etc.
Reviews at -
http://www.dpreview.com/ http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/ (good site with guides, glossary and a learn from others mistakes section but its in dollar prices $1.45/£1 for rough exchange)
Dealers are harder to reccomend, see waht your local camera shop has but don't let them pressurise you. The "chain" stores (Dixons etc) are not bad for this sort of thing, at least you can browse without pressure and the range is usually up to date. The best deals will be online though, stick with the better known ones - Amazon (not always the cheapest), Kellkoo.
www.digital-cameras.com are in the Uk and show a Uk phone # for ordering, and address in Guldford - now THATs interesting just up the road from me.
Happy hunting.