Hi all. Newbie to the forum here. Looking to move into D-SLR for the first time after having a Canon A620 for a few years now.

I am a casual user with a solid understanding of photography basics, limited understanding of Photoshop, etc. But a solid desire to get more creative in this hobby.

Things I am interested in:

1) HDR - both cameras can do sufficient exposure bracketing for my needs here
2) Landscape photography. I live in Colorado and want to take advantage of the views here.
3) Panoramas - I have started to really enjoy these and want to do more of them.
4) Decent auto-settings for my wife. We have 2 kids and my wife still wants to be able to pick up the camera and take auto pictures of the kids both in the house and around town, etc. She has no interest in having to worry about settings when shooting the kids.

Overall - I don't see myself buying $1000s on lenses. Maybe $1000 total in lenses I imagine.

Maybe a 18-70ish size with decent speed to start. Maybe a tele lense down the road.

Based on this info, I would be grateful for some opinions here. I would consider other cameras such as the K10D or the K200D if people think that might be best.

Don't want the E510 since it's exposure bracketing is insufficient (a 2 EV max range) for HDR photography and I don't want to have to do manual exposure bracket shots.

Same with the Sony's. Not sufficient exposure bracketing range.

Thanks all.