Affordable digital SLR cameras

From the International Herald-Tribune:

To an ordinary person, summer might mean barbecues and trips to the beach. To a photography nut, however, it means longer periods of sunlight, brighter subject colors (like on beach balls and bathing suits) and more people who do not have to be told "Smile!"

Nothing has turned more ordinary people into shutterbugs than recent price drops in digital single-lens reflex, or SLR, cameras. These big, black, interchangeable-lens cameras may not fit in your pocket, and they may scream, "I'm a tourist" as they hang from your neck, but their photos blow those little shirt-pocket cams out of the water. Digital SLRs turn on instantly, can take three shots per second, offer every manual control on earth, go for weeks on a charged battery, and have zero shutter lag. In short, they are awesome.

I've been in DEEP LONGING for one of these... probably not anytime soon, of course, but eventually. Sometimes you have to get creative with your finances, yanno?