You may recall I blegged a little bit for advice on a new Digital SLR camera.  One of the more difficult aspects of doing research on a big ticket item is actually making the final decision after narrowing down your choices... or as I call it... pulling the trigger.  After some research, I had narrowed my choices down to the following:

Canon Digital Rebel XTi:  This was my initial first choice.  It's relatively light, and very high quality.  I also have a Canon camera right now which I very much like, and this one uses CF cards which I could interchange.  But there are some drawbacks.  It's got a bad grip for someone with big hands (like me), and poor battery life.  I also realized that it's kind of foolish to lock myself into a particular manufacturer based solely on the memory cards it uses, when I'd probably want to buy a bigger card anyway, and I don't have legacy lenses to worry about.

Nikon D80:  It's considered the best in its class and price range.  After I started to doubt my initial choice on the Canon, I started leaning this way.  By all accounts, it's a fantastic camera, but then I started reading reviews of the...

Nikon D40:  It's less expensive, smaller and lighter than the D80, but has most of the same features.  The features that are missing aren't even ones that I'd miss given my lack of SLR experience.  It also comes with a fantastic kit lens.  The size is comparable to the Rebel XTi, but has a better grip for larger hands.  It's only a 6 MP, compared to the 10 MP output of the other two cameras, but these days mega pixels don't mean as much as you think.  For some good reviews, check out Ken Rockwell and DPReview.

It should be arriving on my door step soon.