Nilla - I am not clear as to how much interest you have in a DSLR as a long-range project; that is - do you expect to expand and get more lenses and need/want to expand the type of photography you do? Or are you just interested in a single camera with maybe a lens or two?

If you think you may have a long-term or expandable interest go very slow, be careful and get the maximum information and experience you can before you buy. Renting would be an excellent idea.

Reason - you are buying into a SYSTEM, not a camera. Canon, for example, has (I think) 47 lenses, with 4 major body types ranging from the 300D thru the 10D, the 1D and 1Ds. The 1D and 1Ds are full professional grade cameras.

The 1D, for example, is primarily intended for sports/motion photography, with a fairly small megapixel count (4 mpx) but an 8 frame per second capability with a 40 frame buffer - that is, you can focus on, say, a surfer, and take 40 successive shots at the rate of 8 per second to have a good chance of capturing a significant "moment". Maximum size print will be around 16X20 inches. This body is around $3000 street.

The 1Ds has an 11 mpx sensor (full 35mm frame) and rivals medium format film in quality. Body about $7000 street.

The 300D and 10D are consumer rather than professional cameras, tho the 10D is so close it is kind of a cross-over, and many are used by pros. The 10D body is about $1300 street.

The lenses which fit all of these bodies range from a couple of hundred dollars up to $10 - $12,000 as I recall.

The Nikon range is comparable, tho Nikon has become the weaker of the two - Canon and Nikon.

The other players - Minolta, Olympus, Pentax, et al - have very, very attenuated lens lines and will likely remain niche items.

It is worth noting that Canon introduced the concept of optical stabilization and owns the basic patents on stabilization, tho Minolta in the A1 introduced a novel method - moving the sensor, not a lens element. If they can apply this to their new DSLR it will be revolutionary since it means ALL lenses would be stabilized.

This long post is to encourage you to think about your ultimate goal. If you want a fully expandable system, IMHO, Canon and Nikon are the only choices.

If you just need a single body and a couple of lenses you have a much wider choice.

As an additional comment - the first step when you buy any DSLR should be to put the camera on a tripod. Use a remote release (don't buy a camera body which does not take one).

Get a perfectly exposed and perfectly focussed image at each zoom range and stop the camera may be used at. This will take a couple of hours, but is INVALUABLE because you now know what the camera is ultimately capable of and have a standard to judge your working images by.

One more note - despite image stabilization the cause of most poor or less-than-optimum images (film or digital) is CAMERA MOTION. Image stabilization is not magic, tho it helps. Good luck - willie408