nikon coolpix is a p&s, it has a long zoom range because of its small sensor. but unless you are shooting animals or birds, why would you need such a long range. the good thing is obviously the long zoom rangeand probably smaller camera size, but the downsides are:
1. less or no depth of field (you can't blur the background well)
2. image quality is less than the pen or dslr because of the smaller sensor.
3. less control of settings to different exposure.
the pen sits right in the middle of a p&s and the dslrs. it has a much bigger sensor than the p&s but a little smaller than the regular dslr. however, it is very small and easier to carry than the dslr. you can get almost everything you get from a dslr. this may be what you need. unless you decided to start photography as a hobby and willing to spend time to understand your camera, you should think twice about buying a dslr. it will produce almost the same images like the p&s or pen if you just put it on automatic mode.
physically, the order of quality of image you get should be dslr-pen-p&s just based on the sensor size. pen and dslr will be very close to each other while the p&s is quite far below. however, people take great photo with their phone cameras too.
