Its a no contest. The picture quality with any DSLR is streets ahead of almost all compacts, even high end digital compacts. They have to be, as the sensor is much bigger. Also, when you press the button, it takes the pic straight away, and even with a cheap DSLR, you can take multiple shots in very quite succession.The only issue with DSLRS is portability- they will never go in your pocket, but then some high end compacts won't either
I always prefer nikon dslrs to canon dslrs- they are much easier to use ; But if u have loads of canon lens, stick with canon.
Canon do better compacts and nikon do better DSLRs