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A bit more meat on the bone for you.
I bought the D90 at the end of 2008 - slightly outside of your range, but a good indicator nonetheless. The main differences between a compact and an SLR will be:
Big and heavy
If you've got to lug a camera far, then a DSLR will prove a lot heavier. This is especially true of my D90, and although it doesn't bother me - others (like my wife) think otherwise.
Speed
DSLRs are proper cameras. In the time it takes my wife's Nikon compact to 'power up', extend the lens, play the music, show the animated graphics, bring up the menus, and then get focussed on the first shot, I can turn on and take 35 perfectly in-focus perfectly lit shots on my D90 (we compared it once!). It isn't just powering up, focusing and frame rates that are faster - all the controls fall conveniently to hand - for example exposure compensation is one button and spin the wheel on my D90, vs five or six button pushes on the compact.
Battery life
Get a DSLR with an in-built rechargable battery. My Nikon will charge in little over an hour and give me enough juice for well over 500 shots with flash + previews and much much more - I've never come near to running out of juice yet, I just leave the charger at home.
I can also leave the camera turned ON for a month and come back and it's not lost ANY charge - it has fantastic power control. The wife's compact will just about manage 20-30 shots with flash before 'battery exhausted' appears and it shuts off. It'll run a set of brand new alkalines down to zero in a month even though it's turned OFF and not taken a single picture.
Picture quality
Picture quality on a DSLR is far superior, although to be fair many people would be hard pushed to tell the difference in simple daylight shots - given the time to compose and set correctly, digital compacts can take remarkably good photos.
DSLRs have bigger lenses and bigger sensors - which mean they are more sensitive to light by an order of magnitude. With the added image stabilisation, this means handheld shots at night without flash are quite possible on my D90, compared to horrid grainy, blurry images the wife's compact produces. Light is the key - as soon as the lighting gets 'tricky' - compact cameras can't cope.
Flash
Flash range on the D90 is also about 10x times that of the compact, and metering of the flash is intelligent vs the 'hope and pray' method of the compact too. It can also control multiple flash units remotely if you want to get very clever. The upper Nikon SLR range have some of the best flash features available on SRLs.
Focus
Focus is obviously faster on the D90, but not as fast or instant as some of the Canon SLR range. Whereas Nikon have the edge with flash metering, Canon have always led the way with the sophistication of AF.
Additional notes
Avoid video modes. Yes, I have one on the D90, it's a gimmick - the large sensor means that the HD image it produces has artifacts that a smaller, dedicated sensor would avoid. Don't place any additional value on a camera having a video mode.
Always handle the camera. The D90 is MUCH heavier than the D40 which I like, but others don't. Make sure you handle each camera and get the assistant to show you how to set the things that you'll use EVERY time you pick up the camera like:
- programme / exposure settings
- exposure compensation
- white balance
- frame rate
- focus mode
- metering mode
- flash mode
- flash compensation
- ISO rating
These are the settings that turn 'compact camera shots taken on a DSLR' into proper DSLR shots. If the assistant can't show you these, you really need find another camera shop!
Hope that helps!
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