DSLRs will get you the best quality; I've found portraits and scenery/landscape shots especially are extremely rich and clear. And it's easier to capture quick moments in that there isn't the same wait time you have with point and shoots in between shots - on these, it's immediate. For that reason, I think it's an ideal camera to have for family/friend gatherings and on more casual trips where it's not a hassle to carry around. The size is kind of obnoxious (the body itself is not much different than the bulkier P&S cameras, but even the standard lens is fairly big), and to be honest I don't use mine very often for that reason. It's not the ideal "on the go" camera; I've actually been thinking of buying a cheapie pocket camera to have with me all the time when I don't have the space/desire to bring the DSLR.
I guess that is me recommending getting both, haha! I know you take tons of family photos especially so I do think a DSLR would be a good investment for you because, seriously, portraits on that thing are so much better than from a P&S. (For reference, I have a Canon Rebel XS, which is their cheaper DSLR.) But besides myself wanting one, a couple other friends with DSLRs eventually got a small p&s as a supplementary camera, so I think you might expect to feel the same way.
If you end up not going the DSLR route but want something better than the cheap P&S lines, I loved my Canon Powershot IS5. It wasn't terribly smaller than the DSLR, but obviously did not have the larger detachable lens, so it was pretty easy to bring everywhere and had an awesome zoom (oh, the zoom on the kit lens for the DSLR isn't much good, but unless you were specifically wanting it for concert shots or something I don't think that's a huge issue for you). I can't speak much to its quality vs. the smaller/cheaper ones because the latter group are probably made WAY better now since the last time I owned one. Either way, I think Canon and Nikon are your best bet like you've mentioned.
I hope that helps haha! Let me know if you have any advanced P&S or DSLR questions, since those are the two types of cameras I've most recently owned. :)
I guess that is me recommending getting both, haha! I know you take tons of family photos especially so I do think a DSLR would be a good investment for you because, seriously, portraits on that thing are so much better than from a P&S. (For reference, I have a Canon Rebel XS, which is their cheaper DSLR.) But besides myself wanting one, a couple other friends with DSLRs eventually got a small p&s as a supplementary camera, so I think you might expect to feel the same way.
If you end up not going the DSLR route but want something better than the cheap P&S lines, I loved my Canon Powershot IS5. It wasn't terribly smaller than the DSLR, but obviously did not have the larger detachable lens, so it was pretty easy to bring everywhere and had an awesome zoom (oh, the zoom on the kit lens for the DSLR isn't much good, but unless you were specifically wanting it for concert shots or something I don't think that's a huge issue for you). I can't speak much to its quality vs. the smaller/cheaper ones because the latter group are probably made WAY better now since the last time I owned one. Either way, I think Canon and Nikon are your best bet like you've mentioned.
I hope that helps haha! Let me know if you have any advanced P&S or DSLR questions, since those are the two types of cameras I've most recently owned. :)
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