[Hondasucks]

My wife is big into photography and has given me a few pointers :-) I used a Nikon D70 SLR (About $250 on ebay, although I'd recommend the D70s as it has a bigger screen and some other goodies) it's only 6 MP, but with the large image sensor it takes good clean photos. (Image sensor size is more important than # of pixels, I've got a 12 megapixel Nikon point and shoot that takes really awesome photos for a point and shoot, and I use it a lot when I am just taking random photos and don't want to lug the SLR around.

Other nice thing about the Nikon is they all take the same lens (I can put the lens off my wife's 1971 Nikon FM 35mm film camera on the SLR, it just loses the auto aperture and auto focus, although you do have to be careful as some of the lenses are made for the smaller DX sensor and if you put them onto a camera with the full frame sensor, it will be fuzzy around the edges) so for starters, get a cheaper SLR body and a lens or two and then later when you have the $ or want to upgrade, you can get a D7000 or something (The newer ones are 1200-3000+) an all the lenses and such will transfer over. I definitely need to get some new lenses, only one I have at the moment is the 28mm-80mm adjustable lens that came with the camera. (And if you're into the old school stuff, Nikon makes some really good 35mm SLRs that will interchange with the digital, they're actually the last company to still make a 35mm film SLR, but it's $1899 lol)