Garth,
It would be a sweet set up, and I like the zoom range of the kit lens.
I think for you to get better reference photos would be a criminal act. You paint way to good with what you have. For the sake of the rest of us, stick with what you've got.
But if you persist - you can create your own side-by-side comparisons on the
www.dpreview.com site. On their home page from the list on the left you will see "buying guide," if you position on this you will see a listing of all cameras from which you can select to make your comparisons.
I don't know the answer to your storage question. However, when you do your side-by-side look down to the "storage types," just to the right you will see a "?" click on this and you can read up on all the different types of devices. You may find your answer there, maybe not.