I am also going to be purchasing one of these cameras hopefully soon. I have been doing some research online for the past month and I am leaning toward the Nikon because I've read more reviews that make it seem like it has a little edge over the Canon. I have a few questions if anyone can help...

1. I've been trying to look at actual photos online that people have taken with both these camera and am floored how many of them look blurry to me. I've never owned a SLR camera and I'm hoping these images that look blurred are just because the user isn't experienced with the camera? Does this happen a lot, is it really hard to get a nice sharp image? I use a Sony camera that costs 1/4th the amount the body of these cameras cost and I have gotten super sharp images with it and would expect these expensive cameras to be way better. Your thoughts on that??

2. Since this is the first DSLR for me, I am clueless when it comes to lenses. I am also not going to be able to spend a fortune right away on all the great ones, I'm pushing it just buying the camera already, but I've been doing more and more with photography and want to continue to do more with a better camera. So what lenses do you recommend at first? I will be taking photos of people (would like to do more portraits) and the outdoors mostly (at first). Later on I'd like to get something specifically for macro because I'm obsessed with closeups, and something that would do well with action shots. Is there a lens you can use that works for all of these things, or do you have to buy specialized lenses for everything? Is there anywhere online to buy decent lenses at cheaper prices?

Thanks for any help you can give me, much appreciated!
Michele