Frankly, if you're starting out, you may as well go for the SX
10. It's got enough manual setting options so that you can
play around and figure out if you want to get further into
photography, and with 20X zoom, image stabilisation and a large
aperture, you can ease into it with a camera that's very
forgiving.
Be advised that when you're buying a DSLR, getting the
camera body itself is the easy part - your troubles begin when you
start looking at getting the right lenses. For example, the
400D with the kit lens was A$1250 when I got it, but within a week
I got tired of the lens and got a Sigma 24-105 f/2.8-4, which could
shoot at much lower light levels. Then came the 18-200 OS,
the Nifty Fifty and the Sigma 10-20 for landscape
photography. Now I'm pushing the 18-200's limits, it's time
to get the 70-200, which at A$2240 costs almost twice the price of
the camera itself , and I'm rushing to get it before the 20% price
hike at the end of the month. The bottom line is that a "low-end"
DSLR can be deceptive - it's the cost of the glass that'll hit you,
and even a basic body will outperform a lot of lenses, as I've
found with the 400D.
It's fine if you know you're going to make use of it, but until
such time you may as well not jump in. I got started with the
SX 10's great-grandaddy, the S1IS, played around with it for about
two years, moved to the 400D, and I figure I'll be ready for
full-frame some time in the next year.
