Doc you don't mention if you are willing to buy grey market (Hong Kong, etc), which (as extraball already mentioned) will generally be considerably cheaper than buying locally. If it was going to take me a while to save the money for what I wanted (eg 18-200mm), what I'd do is get the D5100 and 18-55mm kit lens as soon as I had the funds. (For example ~$490 including insured shipping from eGlobal). Yes the 18-55 will be redundant if you later get the 18-200, but it's not a huge investment over the price of the body alone (~$70 if buying grey). What it does do is allow you to get out and shooting much sooner. It also gives you a chance to give further thought to your full setup (for example once you get a bit of experience you might decide that the 70-300VR is a better option for you telephoto needs).

[This is Nikon-specific as that's all I know, but there should be similar options in the Canon camp. Also I've only checked eGlobal prices as they are usually very competitive, but do "shop" around].

I'm a fan of buying used to get started (that's what I did) but I think the D60 is too far behind the D5100 for the few hundred dollars you would save (for example the D5100 + 18-105mm is $670 including insured shipping from eGlobal). That extra $320 gets you a hell of a lot more camera (and warranty).


Good luck with it...


Cheers.