[bevilaquafoto]

I think it's probably better to concentrate on taking good pictures, and lots of them than worrying about technical minutiae. Sure, when buying a camera there are functions and features that are helpful to have, but a good, basic six or eight MP camera will serve very well without worrying about whether it has 5 or 8 points of focus. In my opinion, one should learn how to focus manually first, how to meter, and how to compose. It really doesn't take a complicated camera to do that. It may be helpful to decide fairly early on which system you want before you invest too much in lenses, but basically, the small technical differences between cameras are not what is going to be important in learning photography. When I started shooting as a kid, I bought a Pentax K1000...the most basic and cheapest camera available. Perfect for learning the basics. Digital should be the same. A decent basic camera with a couple of good lenses to go with it. Just my opinion.