I splurged about a year ago and got an Olympus E-20N 5MP. Best investment I've made for my ameture photography. I love it to death. It's quality is awesome. And now you can get them for abotu $1200 (prolly out of many peoples ranges still). In all reality, unless you are doing lots of photo manipulation or printing REALLY large stuff, there's no needs. (I can have a friend do a 36" print at 100dpi and it looks wonderful).