I did a good bit of research to find one that would suit my needs affordably. I found a few that would suit, but not affordably.
Most of the point and shoot types do not have the resolution capability to make at least 8x10 inch prints in a quality I found acceptable. Several would do up to about 5x7, but beyond that, the image degraded quickly. If web publishing were my goal, several were very good at that level, with most of those costing around $1000 US. The lowest cost camera that would meet my needs was the 35mm SLR style Minolta and it opened at around $5000. The next ones up were the Nikon and the Canon DCS models in the neighborhood of $15,000 each. Additionally, I would have to get a decent dye sublimation printer (inkjet & laser aren't quite there yet) and that would run about another $9000 plus about $100 or so for each pack of paper.
So I decided to wait awhile and let the market drop a little in price. I couldn't justify the expense just yet for the learning experience. Instead, I'm putting my money into other photo related equipment. And I did buy a scanner but haven't yet worked with it. Wish I had a better report. I was a bit disappointed there wasn't a better middle ground between low end and high end, but the technology is still too new to be affordable by a high volume - low price photographer like me just yet.
Thanks for asking. Glad to hear somebody was paying attention.
Captain Zot