IMO, for someone with no SLR experience, something like the Olympus E520, Nikon D40/D60, Canon XS or Sony A300/350 are the models to look at. The price of these isn't too high, and the kit lenses aren't bad on any of them. The new Sony's, spec wise look very nice, but they feel cheap IMO, at least in the consumer range. Same could be said for the Canon offerings in the consumer range, but Sony and Canon do have a lot of features that Nikon, for example doesn't have with the D40 or D60.
The best advice I've ever seen is, go to the store and try them out. Find out which ones are the most comfortable in your hand. If you don't find it comfortable, it wont matter how much higher the specs are compared to the competition, because you wont like using it.
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