Overkill

After searching around the market for a replacement to my dearly departed Canon S400 camera, I've become bitter with the current offerings.

Tons of users on the DPReview forums like to chime in about their resentment against the current "megapixel race" -- where consumer cameras are cramming more and more megapixels into smaller and smaller cameras -- with complete disregard to the physics of light. What this ultimately results in is a substantial decrease in low-light picture-taking performance: photos indoors, at clubs, even just in mid-bright lighting.

So I finally decided on a model that would give me a picture that starts to rival the performance of my 3-year-old camera: the Canon Powershot G7. The problem is, this kind of image quality used to be available on a $400 average-rated consumer camera, and now to get the same thing I've had to fork out $500 for what's considered a pro-sumer model!

Basically, the next step up is a DSLR!
This beast is huge. I'm mean, it's really huge.
And it's hefty. It's practically 3/4lb!

It has so many manual settings and functions on it that on my first day out with it, it's taught me that I know absolutely nothing about photography. I guess it has a lot of room for me to grow into, in the sort of way that you could buy a toddler an adult's full 3-piece suit to grow into.

I wonder if this is going to ironically turn me away from wanting a DSLR, and send me back into the small consumer pocket cameras that I despise so much at the moment.