I have a few friends with the Cannon Digital Rebel XT. It may be worth taking a look at a camera like that when it's coming down in price (you can find the base model for under $600 USD on Amazon) and spending the extra money on additional lenses and filters.
To give you an idea of what you can do with this camera check out this website (this guy is a friend of mine's college buddy from DC) many of his pictures were taken with the Rebel XT:
randydellinger.com