Hello, this is my first post in here, and this forum seems to be a great forum from my first glance of it.

I have long been fascinated by the digital SLR cameras, and I remembered the first time when I started looking at the digital SLR cameras (I have been a compact Sony Cyber-Shot digital still camera user);

When I first started looking at digital SLR cameras, I was really trilled to see them going up to ISO 1000+, and their image quality there is still very clean and high quality! I have been reading about compact digital cameras mostly, and so far most of them only goes up to ISO 400 before becoming too noisy and low quality! The digital SLR cameras have been a totally new experience to me!

I know that the image quality of the digital SLR camera must be seriously good indeed, considering that the image quality of the compact digital camera is already 10 over times better than the best camera phones out there today!

I only saw some images from the lowest end digital SLR cameras, since I didn't dare to venture into the higher end ones, I noticed the super high quality look to the images produced by even just the lowest end digital SLR camera! I imagine how good the higher end digital SLR models must be then!

I do know that the CCD of the digital SLR camera is far bigger than the CCD of the compact digital camera. I have been comparing CCD sizes among the compact digital cameras and so far the largest CCD I have come across on them is at 1/1.8" to 1/1.7". I read that larger CCDs produce higher image quality and lower noise, no wonder the digital SLR camera can produce such high quality and clean images at ISO 1000+. (That is really extreme! My compact digital camera is already very noisy and low quality at ISO 400! It can't even go up to ISO 1000! But I can expect its quality at ISO 1000+ to be really horrible!) I Imagine how good the digital SLR cameras must be!

The digital SLR camera have all the features that I have been looking for, such as the M mode, P mode, S mode, A mode, and the manual focus mode! They also provide me with the 30 seconds slow shutter speed and even a Bulb mode (Those compact digital models always disappoint me by not having full photographic and manual controls).

I just wonder why people using those digital SLR type of cameras always choose to switch off the LCD monitor and use the viewfinder instead? (Is it because such cameras are very power hungry, looking at the big size of them?)

I am really looking forward and excited to getting a digital SLR camera!

There are various digital SLR camera models out there for me to choose from.

I would like to know which digital SLR camera model would you'll guys recommend me?

Thanks in advance!

I have U.S.$1500 to spend on a digital SLR camera (I know that they are much more expensive than the compact digitals), and I plan to spend all of them on a really good one.