unless small size is very important to you, i would avoid a compact. i have a panasonic tz3 that has the 'same' 28-280mm range lens as my fuji bridge camera, but as the lens (and possibly the ccd) is that much smaller it doesn't take anywhere near as good a picture.

obviously if budget is bigger then dslr is the way to go as it will allow future upgrades, but i would say that it will take you a couple of years to outgrow the features of a good bridge camera if you play around with the settings and don't just use auto mode.