[Oy]

Early days with your first DSLR can be very dissappointing. I've seen several people go through this - myself included. It took me about 3 months with my first DSLR (A D70) before I was getting better results than I was with my previous camera (Fuji S7000.)

What I've come to understand is that many non DSLR digitals seem to be configured to give you the best they can right out of the camera. This is not as good as the best a DSLR can get AFTER processing - but is often as good or better than straight off the DSLR. For example the D70 tends to shoot underexposed and a little soft. The idea being to preserve the highlights and not over sharpen - both things which are pretty hard to bring back later.

In retrospect I don't regret my move to DSLR, very often, maybe sometimes when I'm lugging my 20kg backpack around full of lenses LOL!