Rule of thumb to remember with digital cameras. It isn't necessarily all about the number of megapixels, but the quality of the lens attached to the front of the thing. Leica, and Zeiss are probably the best quality lens in the world, and are attached to Panasonic and Sony cameras respectively, although I've not had the chance to use them myself so can only offer an opinion on what I've read/heard.
I have a Canon DSLR with genuine Canon lenses and an S2IS, both take excellent quality photographs IMHO. The bad news is the SLR set me back more than $2k. The good news though is that the pictures my wife and I took last week at a friends wedding are better than the official photographers
