I'm no pro, but I have a pretty good 35 mm SLR that was around $800 when I bought it. I accumulated a few lenses over the years too. I'm somewhat embarassed to say that I haven't taken it out of the bag in 2 years.

I have a 7 MP camera that's smaller, faster and exponentially easier to use. Hell, one of my cell phones has a 3.2 MP camera which is good enough for most of my uses.