Learning photography. What camera?

thanks everyone!

thanks for the good responses everyone! i've done some thinking, and some more researching. i pretty much fall in the 4th category, w/not having that much money. getting another digital camera is probably out of the question. so let me rephrase: will i learn more about photography if i get a film SLR (the canon eos rebel ti) then if i just stick to using my casio exilim z3 point and shoot?

IMO Yes! I really like the Ti. I have used it a few times and it is a great camera!

Yes, if you mean about what makes photography work. How you frame the picture's all in your eye, and different cameras won't make much difference here. (If the lenses have different angles of coverage, that'll make some difference, but . . .) What you'll really gain by moving to the SLR (or other cameras allowing manual settings) is an understanding of how to expose for different situations, and how changing shutter speeds or apertures affects the final image. (Depth of Field or how much of the picture's in focus, stopping/blurring moving objects, or exposing for detail in highlights or shadow areas.) Your Exilim, if I'm reading Casio's site correctly, makes all those decisions for you, and just chooses the middle ground.

Jon,

All of these can be done with a G series camera. Since it has a smaller sensor than the Canon SLRs Depth of Field is harder to do. Working with limited equipment always helps you to learn the tecnique quickly as you are limited. Then you can move up to an SLR.

The G series has add on tele, wide, and macro lenses so you can learn with these as well. All of the add ons are significantly cheaper than an SLR for learning the baics. For a student the gear is mucho $$$$$. I am doing this with my G2 until I get good enough to really use the feature of an SLR.

Or . . .

Get on Ebay and pick up a Canon film camera like the Rebel G or 500, which will use the same lenses as your dream camera. About $90 with a passable (for this purpose) lens. I just bought one to use as a backup for my 10d.