You can't buy a camera off of what everyone says to buy! If that was the case everyone who has come into this site would buy a Canon or Nikon! You need to:
1st find out what you want the camera for! (you are not just going to only take HRD pics!)
2nd Find what options you will need the most for what you want (just cause someone tells you buy a Nikon still tells you nothing! There's a ton of different models!
3rd go to a store and hold a few! see what feels right in your hands and what seems to be the easiest 2 use for you.
4th go home and read some reviews on the ones you liked.
5th buy a Sony! (JK)
Every single person told me to buy a Canon or Nikon! That helped my decision on what to buy NONE!If anything it did nothing but confuse me. John Doe owns a D300 and has been a photographer for 30 + years. He says the D300 is the best camera on the market. So you run out and buy one. Well now you just spent a thousand dollars on a camera you have no idea how to use,and when you do learn how to use it, It will take you a few more years to actually learn how to use all its features.Or you will not have the features you need for what you want. Most brands are about the same. They all have a low/medium/and high end line and all have very very similar options. I drove to the camera shop 100% sure I was going home with a Nikon D200! I came home with a Sony A-100. Not because someone told me to buy it. But because It felt right in my hands,It had features that Nikon and Canon don't have,and it was a heck of allot cheaper than what I was going to buy! Am I happy? I couldn't of picked a better camera!!! Should you go out and buy one? You might think it's a P.O.S., that depends on allot more factors than what camera someone tells you to get