To end the ramble, I suggest you visit a few camera shops and play with all the offerings. I don’t think it really matters which brand / model you go with and they will all take great pictures once you learn how to use it and what limitation each one has. I know my 510 will take a better picture than my humble talents will allow.
Good post. My photography (other than casual) pretty much cease back in 2002 when my house was broken into. While I had a nice 35mm SLR (Nikon 8008S) I really liked my lenses:
24 2.8 AF Sigma
28-70 2.8 AF Sigma
90 1:1 Macro 1.8 AF Sigma
80-200 2.8 AF Nikon
as I recall
Can you tell I like fast lenses
Off side is size (think the smallest filter I had was 72mm) and weight.