Morning all,

Have spent the last few weeks visiting camera shops, searching forums/review sites and talking to friends about buying a DSLR. My first for many many years, in fact the last one was pre digital.
Had a couple of "good" cameras back when I was traveling a lot (10 years ago), both film and digital, but not DSLR - and started getting stuck into photography at the time with what I had. Then a lot of personal stuff happened which put things on hold until now. Now things are good.

My conundrum... Bear in mind the 30/50 rule (can't name shops etc - great idea BTW) but have visited a few shops, and received superb customer service from shop A, OK service from shop B but their prices are better, slightly. Don't mind paying for service so shop A gets the sale, and it looks like they'll match or come close to shop B's prices.

Am looking at the Nikon D5100. Originally saw the 3100 and it looked good, then had a play with thew 5100 and 7000. Am open to suggestions re Canon's equivalent, but the many shops I visited recommended the Nikon 3100 or 5100 for me even though many seemed to be having Canon promotions. From my point of view the 5100 seemed to offer more value for money.

On top of this, obviously I am after a range of features etc, not into gimmicks, which was a reason I didn't like the D5100 at first (swivel screen) but go talked around, but I don't want it to be impossible/too difficult to use as the Good Lady will want to play as well.

What will I be using it for? Good question. One of the main reasons for making the jump is to keep up with my 4 year old boy. Those of you who have 4 year olds will understand, they are FAST! Too fast in 7/10 cases, for the current Point and Shoot, or the Nokia phone camera (I know...) - PLUS at 4 he's doing a lot more interesting things (fast) than when he was in the cradle looking adorable, but not fast. As well as this, I'm back into traveling mode so the camera will be used to travel a bit, and tend to take countless landscape/architecture.scenery shots when away - and I enjoy sporting events.
Have never been into macro, but after looking into it - wow! Would love to give this a crack, as well as the usual family occasion type shots, and there are a few weddings coming up. I don't know what they've put in the water around here but a LOT of people I know are falling pregnant, so the coming months will bring lots of photo opportunities.

But it's all about the lens isn't it? Right. To keep things relatively cheap (at first) was looking at one of two "stock standard" sets of lenses. The Nikkor 18-55 combined with the 55-300 (VR), or the 18-105mm VR on its own. Build it from there, or there's another lens option which I'll start a new thread for since I have so many questions on that...

Budget? The above combinations can be had for around $1300-1600 including memory card, UV filters, case etc, and that suits my budget nicely. Have room to go up but will require brownie points ideas for the GL to approve, the good news is, she's looking forward to the purchase almost as much as I am.

Again, any input greatly appreciated - enjoy.

Red