In reply to Pyreneenemec:
If you want DSLR quality then the key thing is the sensor size. That's not the amount of mega-pixels but the physical size of the sensor. On most small cameras the size is pretty small so the quality can never be that good.
However cameras referred to as mirrorless have sensors the same size DSLRs or, in the case of micro-four thirds, just a little smaller. The bigger sensor requires more expensive lens so the whole set up is likely to be far more expensive than cameras with smaller sensors.
However the quality is now so good that some professional photographers are choosing mirrorless instead of DSLRs. And the size can be about the same as a normal compact camera, though it'll depend which lens you are using at the time.
Like DSLRs you want to think about which system you'll use rather than a specific camera. You might well change the body in some years time but, like DSLRs the biggest investment are the lenses.
Most of these cameras have pretty comprehensive manual settings and will shoot in RAW. I've got a Panasonic LUmix G3 which was about £350 including a kit zoom lens. I chose that because it has pretty wide bracketing setting which I wanted to try HDR photography. Panasonic share the same lens mount as Olympus so you can use lens from either manufacture plus some third party manufacturers too.
There are more and more options all the time.
