the trouble with photograhphy

You are so correct. Real good equipment whether film or digital can make you go broke. The nice thing about digital it does cut the cost of film. However, if your looking for all the features and quality of 35mm or larger format film cameras it can still make you go broke with digital equipment too. It depends on what your doing it for though. Cameras are like computers whether in the film or digital realm. If you want the best quality and the most options or professional use you better have many thousands of dollars. What you need and what you want can be the determining factors to what you get (and what you can afford to spend). point and shoot, in between or professional can make the difference. What you want to shoot and what you want the end product to be all need to be the deciding factors in choosing a camera.