PAR4DCR Loc: A Sunny Place

Welcome to UHH Doug, glad you found us. I see that you have received many suggestions. Mine is not to rule out refurbished gear, it can save you some $$$. Only buy refurbished gear from reputable firms like Adorama, B&H, Cameta, KEH, Canon or Nikon.
Have fun, learn and enjoy the forum.

Don

Georgews Loc: Wellington, New Zealand

Welcome to the Hog, Doug
Like Adicus I live in New Zealand so don't know your prices over there. Hoggers will be able to give you tons of advice. When you have narrowed it down to about two or three go into a shop and try them in your hand to see what is most comfortable. I use canon but that is only a preference because I had Canon lenses from a previous film camera.
Don't rush in and buy expensive lenses right off. Leave some $$ for that later. Get used to your camera and try photographing as much as you can and you will start to work out what you want to do. You may find that you like landscapes or maybe macro or portraits. Each takes a specific skill set which you can grow into as well as learning what gear you need. Give yourself time to become thoroughly familiar with whatever you get before buying extra gear you may seldom use.
Have lots of fun when you get your new camera

Bunkershot Loc: Central Florida

I jumped in a couple of years ago. Went with a Nikon D7100 and have never regretted it. Suggest after you get some gear buy Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure". A must if you are serious about the hobby. Hope you enjoy the trip as much as I do...

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

This is the second recommendation on this book. Mentioned on page 1 or 2. I'm curious now.

sailorsmom Loc: Souderton, PA

Welcome, Doug! What a life story you have...and I'm so sorry about your wife! You'll get plenty of help here! I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
Sue

tinwhistle

Hi Doug. What with your personal events I don't know if you will see this, but I'll put it out there anyway, it may be of help to someone else. A lot of good advice posted, but I'm going to go in a different direction. First of all I wouldn't buy anything on line just yet. Find a good, reputable camera shop in your area and make yourself at home there. They will be of enormous help in picking out your first rig. The next step is to find a good photography course, with real live people. The camera store will help you with this also. They may even hold classes themselves. Local community colleges are a super resource for "hands on, personal" instruction. I used to teach photography at our local college and I had more than one student come back and tell me the best advice I gave them was to "live" with the cameras owners manual: carry it at all times, eat with it, jog with it, sleep with it. Memorize it. Once you know your gear inside and out you will be much more capable of picking up on things like "depth of field", "exposure triangle", "white balance", etc. Good luck to you and yours and keep us posted...

Bill1453

Hi Doug, What I recommend to you is, (and this is what I did 12 years ago). Go to your local college and take a class in photography, you will also learn image editing in your photography course as well. I enjoyed it so much I took advanced photography and additional image editing course which was Adobe Photoshop. As for what camera to buy, I would start with a point and shoot camera, Canon, and Nikon, either one would be a good choice. If you are going to be shooting a lot of nature shots I would look into something with a long optical zoom, Don't pay any attention to digital Zoom. If you need to blow up shot you can do it Photoshop and its a lot better.

JoAnneK01 Loc: Lahaina, Hawaii

Aloha Doug and welcome to UHH. Am deeply sorry to hear of your daughter's loss but the main thing is everyone is safe and okay. When you are ready please come back and am sure all in the group will be more to help you out.

creativ simon Loc: Coulsdon, South London

Welcome and enjoy