Ditto what Ken said (btw, Ken, I have either totally forgotten or didn't know you got the XT - nice choice!). It is a nice chunk of change, but cheap in the dSLR world. The Nikon D70 or D50 would also work well for your purposes. However, any SLR will quickly lead into the world of buying extra lenses ($$$) that you may not want to head down. If that's the case, I'd check out the Canon Powershot S2 IS - it's consistently reviewed well, and is very reasonably priced for the features, too ($400).