Equipment for beginners

"Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping." -- Bo Derek

I am a photography newbie and a lady. When I am looking for equipment, I have to get items that fit my criteria:

• the smallest
  
• the lightest
  
• high quality
  
• not expensive
  

Size and weight:
The first thing is the camera. That is the single item (plus its battery) that must be carried everywhere where I want to shoot. It must be small and it must fit in my lady-like purses and little funky urban backpacks (like this one and this one). I do not want to carry a big backpack on my child-like shoulders everywhere I go. Most people do not realize I carry my SLR everywhere, it is not obvious.

I got Nikon D60. 10.2 mega pixels, about a pound of weight (plus lens), and only 94mm tall which means that it can lay (display down, lens up) at the bottom of a 10 cm thick purse or a backpack... not bad. I know there are many reasons other people get fancier cameras, but for the sake of my savings, I do not want to understand these reasons. I want to have a camera that I will overgrow in about 2 years. By that time, I will know exactly what other camera I want or do not want, and that other camera will be available in its newest model. I do not want to carry a complicated heavy camera and not use its functions.

Quality:
I was considering Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Sony. After observing the folks at Photo Fridays, I narrowed my selections down to Nikon and Canon. Then after a talk with Dustin I narrowed it to D60. D60 offers a vibration reduction (VR) built in into the default lens. It was simple. I listened to the experienced ones and I did some online research to cross-check whether they were bullshitting me or not. D60 it was.

Not expensive:
Ehm... well... yeah. We are talking about photography equipment here.

What to get:
Consider one of these entry level SLR cameras or cameras with similar specs.
Get a simple camera with the default lens (with vibration reduction either in the body or a lens), battery and charger, memory card, and a memory card reader (or a camera cable). That is it. Start simple. It will take you couple of months to get used to carrying that thing everywhere and to start experiencing lens envy, tripod envy, or strobe envy.
Once you get envious, you do not need mine or anyone's advice... you will do your own research and get the stuff you want. Nothing will stop you... once you get into photography, you can not get out. And this is how today I ended up with this.