Looking for a decent camera...

I am such a noob when it comes to cameras, but i’d like to buy a rather nice one… I don’t know what they are called, I just call the smaller more comon ones that fit in a purse credit card camera (because they look like a card) I had one, but I’m not the type of person to have my camera with me at a party. I’m more of the type to park my car in a cool location and take nice pictures… that is why i’m looking at these types:

http://computershopper.com/shoptalk/i/nikon_d80_good.jpg

I’d like to stay around the 600$ mark, what should I look for in these cameras? and which camera would you buy?

SLR camera.

i have one but its really old, its film, not digital.

sorry man, havent looked for a camera in a while

The one in the picture is a D80. With lens, it’s $1,000. I have a D40x 10.2MP and love it. It’s a very good beginner camera. Take a few minutes and read.

http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3896/camera-test-nikon-d40x.html

Some sample pics:
http://www.letsgodigital.org/html/review/nikon/d40x/nikond40x_test.html

d80 is awesome, I had a chance to tinker with one and its cool. I wanna get a d40x at some point.

D80 is cool for sure. Once I get really used to my D40 and if the need arises…I am gonna go with the D200. Nikon makes some sick cameras.

yeah, d80 is STILL considered really entry level. My mother got one. She used to be a little into photography and shit. And my sister is having a baby soon, so my mom really wants to get into it and all the photography threads on here got my motivated as well. When I go home for x-mas, I plan to spend a lot of time using it.

Im not really sure that it would even make sense to go from the d40x -> d80, but I REALLY don’t know shit about it.

nikon d40