no compact camera can take pictures the way you want them. The digital slr's have the ability for you to tell which area of the frame you want the camera to focus. e.g. center, center right, top center, top right...etc... i think the rebel has even more than the 9 areas of focus than the nikon. It is lighter too and can take more frames per second. (i shoot in low light a lot and under fluorescents (both of which the nikon is better at than the rebel) when shooting your models or props, you will need to over-ride the auto focus on your smaller digital camera in order to get what you want.. Most camera's won't even allow you to do this, and if they do have the option, it is with a button which makes the whole thing a long aggravating ordeal. Digital slrs, in addition to the focal grid selection option, has a manual focus ring so you can quickly 'old school' it and focus on which part of your model you want it to focus on... I've had my d50 for a year and a half and have only gone manual focus once... the auto focus grid selector is fast and easy. Go to best buy or where ever and hold the rebel slr... it isn't as big as the d50 and is pretty light. ..just my 2 cents... i had used a nikon coolpix for years... frustrated the hell out of me especially when trying to capture sports... you need to be psychic .... and know three seconds in advance when the action was going to happen.
if you do go the digital route... at least make sure it has a macro function and a manual focus ring..
