Following on from the camera bag thread, is there a midrange sort of camera between the small quality compacts and the full blown SLR's ?

I've had a cannon ixus 5 for the past 2-3 years and its awesome at what it does, but anything slightly over the distance its comfortable with and it goes down hill fast, I think its the point and shoot aspect that lets these cameras down a bit.

My old man has a full blown cannon rig with the EOS 20D and a fuck off great image stabalizing cannon lens and I couldnt be doing with anything like that, never mind the cost!!

So I'm thinking of in between, not sure on what I'm prepared to spend until I've seen what the good ones tend to cost on average, then I'll decide on budget.

Thanks for any suggestions