I just occured to me that when you talk about a "Canon 35Xzoom" then you're talking about a point-and-shoot with a 35X zoom. This is exactly the sort of camera that I would NOT buy:

Canon S95 = 10Mpix and 3.8X zoom = $399
Canon SX30 = 14Mpix and 35X zoom = $429

Almost the same price but the SX30 seems to have a far better specification, so what's the difference? My guess is it's image quality. The S95 probably has lots of special glass plus a bigger sensor which make the camera expensive but provides the image quality to rival a DSLR. Whereas the SX30 probably makes a lot of compromises in image quality. If you only do postcard size prints the you might not notice the difference but the 14Mpix is really overkill.

At Christmas I shall have the opportunity to test something similar to the SX30 (my sister bought a Nikon P100 for bird-watching). I'll let you know.

If you buy an entry-level DSLR this is going to give you the equivalent of a 3x zoom (18-55mm = 28-85mm in film terms). To give you the same thing as the SX30 (=24-860mm in film terms) you would have to buy at least 4 lenses for your DSLR.

BTW what's wrong with your current point-and-shoot? What are the things you don't like about it?