Becoming a Photographer;-)

[folob]

Maybe a compromise is in order. You will not get a veru good "photographer" quality from a high end P&S ....and at the same time, you might experience a lot of frustations with An high end DSLR.

so, why not going for the middle road? Think about the Olympus OM-D EM-5 which will give you an high FPS (up to 9 fps), high ISO capabilities, a bunch of fun modes and a decent price for DSLR quality.

Go with the 12-50mm kit (which gives you Macro capabilities) and add somthing like the 40-150 (Olympus), 45-200 (Panasonic) or up to 300mm by Olympus and you will get a lot of distance reach ... For close or under 2k $

Read some reviews .... You never know!