What are some good, high quality, point and shoot or DSLR cameras?

You are comparing apples to oranges.

A point & shoot is fine for taking snapshots of friends and family and general vacation pictures.

A DSLR is used by a person knowledgeable about light and composition and shutter speeds and ISO and f-stops and skilled in using that knowledge to make the pictures they want to make.

It really comes down to how involved you want to be with photography.

If you could care less about being able to manually set the f-stop and shutter speed or using a 10mm ultra wide angle lens or having the option of using a 50mm f1.4 lens in low-light or printing 16×20 prints then a DSLR would, in my opinion, be a poor choice for you.

If all you want to do is take snapshots and print the occasional 4×6 print then a point and shoot is all you need.

I suggest going with a point and shoot for now. Use it for a few months and if you find yourself getting frustrated with its limitations then you can start thinking about a DSLR.

Point & Shoot cameras are wonderfully handy because of their small size.
When light conditions are ideal, they even take really nice photos – all of them do.

However, they all DO have limitations – they don’t do very well in low light situations (i.e. noisy photos, hard to avoid blur, etc). The little onboard flash is very harsh at close range, and doesn’t reach very far.
Many of them have no manual functions, so you are limited to only very basic photos, you can’t compensate for unusual situations, or do many fun “tricks” and special effects.
P&S’s also suffer from frustrating shutterlag and many of them chew through batteries rather quickly.

However, if you’re ok with all those limitations, then go ahead and pick one, most of them (the same type and same price range) are rather similar. Personally I would pick either a Canon or a Nikon, and would certainly stay away from Kodak.

A higher end P&S will give you more manual options and better quality. Many of those even give you the option of adding a proper flash (which makes a big difference to your flash photos).

Don’t worry too much about megapixels…. there is a limit to how many pixels you can squash into a tiny P&S sensor before you actually LOSE quality rather than gain it.
Don’t worry about digital zoom, in fact, don’t EVER use it. It simply crops away pixels, i.e. destroys information. The only real zoom is optical.

Decide which features are important to you, and look for cameras that have that feature.
Then go compare a few models on http://www.dpreview.com .

The very best thing you can do for your success is to borrow some books and learn about photography. A bit of knowledge will make a much bigger difference to your photos than your choice of P&S camera can.

Judging by your question, you have a LOT to learn, and perhaps you’re not ready for a DSLR. Personally, I’d suggest starting with a good bridge camera, and learning about photography. You will then be in a much better position to make good purchase decisions.

For what it’s worth – if I was in the market for a P&S camera right now, my choice would be a Canon Powershot SX10 IS http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=17630