Cameras

For her birthday, Sarah wants a camera.  She did the research and for any of you looking, it may be of some help in making your decision.

Her assessment:

I think the right fit would be an Digital SLR:

According to reviews, the two most highly recommended choices are as follows and reviews are basically even;
Nikon D3000  (or D40 or D60 is the same thing with a few tiny additional features)
and the Canon EOS XS and XSi

They both take beautiful pictures and I cannot find any discerning difference.  Apparently in the photography world you are either a Nikon person or a Canon person and from there you chose one or the other.  The Nikon and the Canon are both good for beginners - you can use as a point and shoot and start to play around with features.  Once you become more advanced they are a good base if you buy lenses, etc....

The Leica is a beautiful camera but considered a "compact" not an SLR.  I think it is basically more for photographers who don't want to lug around their equipment to weddings, traveling, etc.  It does not have as many features/things to play around with which is why I thought a SLR might be better for me to learn how to take pictures.

Also, the Wall Street Journal among other publications have written about it too much in trend peices and they have since jacked up the price $300 to around $800 since the fall.