What is the best slr camera on the market?

Olympus are known to be very light weight. 2 pounds when others can be 4-6 pounds. Canon d40 is fine. The standard level DSLRs are basically equal, just look at the features and see what you'll actually use. You can pay $7000 for a full frame 24mp camera with tether and bracketing and any mess of features. Or you can get a camera with shutter and aperture settings for $400.

You've got to ask yourself are all those neato features worth all that money?

When you compare the specs, for the price, most dslr's tend to offer the same, the main difference is the interface and layout. My tip is that you go to a shop and actually hold the camera , test it out and buy a model that you feel comfortable with. Ex: i bought a canon rebel xti, then sold for olympus e510 b/c of features, but still got the same images but wasnt happy with the look and feel of the camera, then i moved over to sony a300. I love the a300, its perfect, and offers practically the same specs for the money. So get a camera and see how it feels, to make sure your confortable with it...

hope these links help in your journey:

http://digitalslrguide.typepad.com/

http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/what-is-the-best-...

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_best_digital...

Enjoy

By the way, in making decisio focus on the lens prices, cause its the lens that makes the camera, not the body. In my case since sony is backwards compatible, i can use the old line of af minolta lenses and they cost 1/3 of the price of a new sony lens.

Forget the lightweight, if you really want the best then I think a Hasselblad might fit the bill. 4x5 inch sensor, quite better then full frame indeed.

You just need a spare $50.000 for a decent set up. I guess that is not an issue right?

The Nikon D90 is probably a good combination of quality, features, and cost. The Nikon D5000 lacks a few features and costs a bit less. It is lighter.

I would suggest Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens

Hasselblad H4D-60

just announced a few days ago.

Either canon or Olympus

The best one is not "light weight" at all.