My previous camera was a Minolta Maxxum. I've got a handful of lenses (28-80, 70-300, 50 prime) that won't fit anything but a minolta. I also have a bunch of screw on filters (UV, Cir-PL, crosshatch, red, green, yellow, ND) and Cokin squares that are now obsolete because of the magic of digital processing. I still use the Cir-PL, and ND filters from time to time, but all the other stuff can be done on a computer.
The first thing that I instantly loved about going digital is that it's free to take pictures. When I used to have to pay for film and processing I sometimes got stingy about whether a shot was worth it or not. Now I can take hundreds for free.
I am leaning towards Elements, if only because I didn't know of anything else.
When you shoot, do you shoot in JPEG or RAW format? I understand the advantages of RAW, but it takes up so much more space on the card.