Well, if you really want to get into photography, and take it more seriously and so forth, but you are a beginner and don't have much money, I would suggest you buy a bottom of the line DSLR, so I would go with someone like a Canon Rebel XTI or a Nikon D80 or something like that. They cost like $500, but they come with a start lens kit, and then once you become more experienced in photography over time, and you want to add wide-angle lenses and zoom-lenses to your arsenal, you can buy those separately. The pictures you take with a DSLR, even a bottom of the line cheapo $500 one will be MUCH much better than a photograph taken by a point-and-shoot camera. This is because it has a much larger sensor. They also have fairly beginner-friendly auto-modes for these cameras, so you will be taking nice pictures right out of the box, but if you read the user manual, and look up some good beginners guides to digital photography on the internet, you will be able to take some really breathtaking shots probably. I would also suggest you invest in a tripod, because this will allow you to do a lot more, since camera-shake will be completely taken out of the equation, allowing you to run much slower shutter-speeds and so forth, which will allow you to get much more beautiful and crips photos than if you had to run a high shutter speed to neutralize the shaking of your hands when you take photos.
Good luck, and have fun!
