Last year I talked myself out of a DSLR and bought an updated super-zoom Fujifilm S5200. Kept my 2MP super-zoom Olympus C2100 because it's good at digital near-IR.
Now that I'm photographing dogs and cats at the county shelter (in reduced light and without a partner to act as a handler), I'm talking myself into the "need for speed" -- being able to raise my ISO without adding visible noise. I'm shooting at high ISOs and slow shutter speeds and many shots are blurred due to my hand shaking (always a problem for me, but now I have one hand on a moving cat/dog and one hand on the camera). I have to upload the images at the shelter without benefit of editing in Photoshop, so I can't shoot in raw or remove the noise. I had hoped to avoid the use of flash (spooks some cats/dogs), but have had to add it to the mix to keep the noise level of the images at a reasonable level.
A DSLR could deliver clean images at 1600 ISO, thus reducing my need for flash and helping the animals get better photos with less stress and find new homes faster --- sounds reasonable to me

But I know it's my camera lust attacking again...
Wow, Danny! A D300 -- yum!! Beats out my news of getting a D40 just now (except the D40 is mine, so that's better news for ME!
The deals for the D40 were too much to pass up, and they had a great price for the VR version of the 55-200mm lens also, so I went for it.
I've opened up the boxes (with the "help" of two of the cats), started charging the battery and held the camera in my own hands. Have a lot to learn about settings and controls, but that will all be FUN. I have some free time coming up, and hope to make some good images soon after some practice.
I've been waiting for this since I read about the first DSLR years ago - I knew that digital workflow fit me better than film did, and I'm truly excited to finally have this little beauty in my hands!
Danny - how long do you have to wait for your D300? I'm sure you're drooling at the thought.
Look FWD now to getting CS3 installed so I can start tinkering with ACR, .RAW. etc.
Too many distractions to conflict with required holiday-related tasks. A nice problem to have.
Its such fun getting a new camera....look forward to lots of pics from you both!!!
Patricia...