If you want in-body image stabilization in a consumer level (

Oh, nice, I entered a less than symbol and it ate my comment. NICE ESCAPING BEN BROWN.

Um, what I was saying was, if you want in-body image stabilization and live live LCD in a consumer level SLR for that money, you probably have few options, I think the Sony Alpha A200K is probably your best bet.

But I'd caution you about overspending on the SLR body vs. lenses. Those kit lenses are usually cheapo $100 zoom lenses.

If you mostly shoot portraits, low light, no flash, you might get better looking shots by getting an older or cheaper Nikon SLR body (D70 or D80) and then getting a nicer fixed focal length fast portrait lens. On the small sensor bodies, a 50mm has the view of about a 75mm on a traditional camera, which is great for portraits. So getting a classic 50mm F1.8 or so will give great portrait results.

I guess I'm just skeptical that all the electronic whooha for high ISO and image stabilization and whatever is really better than getting a nice piece of glass.

For a really long time I shot with a D70 and fixed focal length fast lenses and I think the results were great. (I did upgrade to a D700 because I have no other hobbies and the high ISO performance is pretty amazing, but it feels like cheating, and I'm skeptical the mid-range cameras with small sensors really can compete with it.)

also be careful with the live view lcd. supposedly it detracts from the quality of the picture, HOWEVER now some of them are supposedly NOT doing that. i dunno how much i believe it though.

i am a big fan of the rebel xsi or the nikon d40. a nikon d40 can be pickked up now a days for probably around 450-500 and if you add a speed flash to that you can get some really excellent photos.

i'd suggest a d60 or higher (the older nikon don't have dust reduction systems in place), or something similar from olympus if you want less upkeep (very good dust reduction on those, and will save you the hassle of having to frequently clean the image sensor). never been a fan of live view.

the d60 is nice, but i thought it was too expensive for what it was, i think a lot of the features were kinda gimmicky for basically a d40 with video. it is a good camera though.

hmmm... thank you for all the tips.. ive gotten a lot of recommendations for the Nikon D40... so i'll check that out and i'll keep in mind the ideas about the lenses. i'm really a newbie at this stuff and have used a little canon powershot sd400 for the last 4 years or so, but ive always wanted to upgrade to something a little more professional. so, yeah.. hehe

thanks, guys..