Tommo has offered good advice.

Everyone tends to ask "what camera do you use"? But the body is really a consumable (limited shutter life etc) and will be outdated by newer models, whereas quality lenses are a long term investment.

You'll be much better off with good lenses and an average body than average lenses and a good body.

If you don't have a high budget, I'd recommend you start off with 1 or 2 primes (lenses that don't zoom). That idea may put you off at first but:

- They are fast, which can compensate for a cheap camera's poor ISO perfomance.
- Image quality is as good as it will ever get
- They are cheap. Cheaper than poor quality zoom lenses!
- The lack of zoom actually encourages creativity and forces you to explore the environment instead of sitting on a bench and zooming.

My $0.02