I made the move to digital several years back, retiring my Canon SLR for a Nikon Coolpix 990. While the 990 was a capable camera, I had really missed the capabilities of an SLR. So.. I returned to an SLR in 2003 with the purchase of a Canon Digital Rebel. This is the Canon 10D's little brother, and is very similar. I am finding it to be a very capable camera, and it allows me to use any Canon EF or EF-S lens. It has a 6.3 MP CMOS sensor along with the Canon DIGIC chip. Noise is extremely low, which is great for astrophotography, one of my main uses for the camera. Of course, it has since been replaced in the Canon product line, but it still serves my needs very well, especially since I installed a hacked firmware on it, which enables some of the features Canon disabled in the 300D (primarily mirror lockup).

• Canon Digital Rebel (also known as the 300D)
• Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (equivalent of 28-90mm in 35mm format)
• Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM lens
• Canon RS-60E3 remote switch
• Extra Canon BP-511 battery
• Hoya 58mm Circular Polarizer (S-HMC) Super Multi-Coated Glass Filter - Thin
• 2 Hoya 58mm Haze UV(0) (S-HMC) Super Multi-Coated Glass Filters (one for each lens)
• Quantaray QSX-3300 tripod - nice all-metal tripod made by Sunpak which should last until I get a Bogen
• Lowepro Photo Runner - my small SLR camera bag
• Targa Tundra - my large SLR camera bag
• Lowepro DMC-V Memory Card Wallet
• Lexar Media 1GB Professional 80x WA Memory Card
• Lexar Media 512MB Memory Card
• 2 SimpleTech 256 MB Memory Cards
• Lexar Media USB 2.0 Memory Card Reader - much faster than the camera itself
• ScopeStuff 2" Filter Case - fits the Hoya's nicely and are better than the Hoya case

• Adobe Photoshop CS
• Canon's Digital SLR software suite
• Google's Picasa 2 - great freeware photo management software