I know several of you guys know a lot about cameras so I'd like to get your opinions on the matter. The wife is looking into getting an intro level DSLR. Personally, I'd like to stick with a prosumer camera (for video and live preview capabilities) ...she's mostly worried about low-light performance.

Some of the cameras I've been looking into are..

Canon Powershot G10
Canon Rebel (several different models)
Nikon D40/40X, D60

What would you guys recommend?

Depends on your budget really.

I just PMed you on iChat this camera
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/580422-REG/Nikon_25448_D90_SLR_Digital_Camera.html

Nikon D90 SLR Digital Camera with Nikon 18-105mm VR Lens

* 12.3 Megapixel
* DX Format CMOS Sensor
* 3" VGA LCD Display
* Live View
* Self Cleaning Sensor
* D-Movie Mode
* High Sensitivity (ISO 3200)
* 4.5 fps Burst
* In-Camera Image Editing
* GPS geo-tagging


So you can do low-light, live preview, & video.

With the lens being f/3.5-5.6, wouldn't it be too slow for low light photography (even with VR)?

If you want low light, then you should go Canon. Even the Rebel is better than most of the stuff that Nikon offers. I'm not trying to flame Nikon, as I like their system (the SB800 can't be beat, and screw Canon's jog wheel thingie), but in my various employments over the past few years, I've worked with most of the DSLRs these companies have produced, and for low light, Nikon is teh suxxorz. My 20D at 1600 is cleaner than a D2Xs at 800. Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.

GO with the 5D if you can afford it, and the 50mm 1.4 is only around $300.00. That should keep you and her busy for awhile.

Right now I'm looking hard at the Canon EOS 450D ...weeding through the extremely long review over at dpreview.com. That's about the price range I'm looking at too

Back in the film days I liked Nikon better than Canon, but it is hard to beat a Canon these days, price and quality in one package

Yeah, Nikon's produce terrible noise.



Shot at ISO 25,600, f/10, .8sec

One needs to embrace the grain. They are all good.

dave

But seriously, the D60, D90, D300, D700 & D3 cameras smoke the old D2xs, D200, etc cameras.

Chances are, you probably won't be doing a lot of high ISO shots, since most people use flash.

I say get something you can afford, don't listen to us Nikon/Canon users because everyone has their preference.

I've started looking at the EOS 1000D (XS) ...I can get it for $475 at Amazon.com ...here's a sample gallery I found

http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/canoneos1000D_preview/

HERE is an image comparison page between the 1000D and the Nikon D60

HERE is an image comparison between the 1000D and the 450D

For ~$150 less I can deal with the image quality of the 1000D. The 450 is a bit faster and has a couple other advancements, but none that I'm that worried about. They both shoot .cr2 RAW files (which work fine in iPhoto and OSX in general) so I can probably start shooting in RAW full time.