Digital SLR - your recommendations

[Muzza]

Fellows,

My (optical SRL) Minolta Dynax 700si broke down during the United States Grand Prix Saturday practice (see PS note) and I am comparing digital SLR models prior to purchasing one.

What are your comments and recommendations on this concern? Of course "more is better" (more resolution, higher speeds, bigger buffers) in such a case, but comes at a cost.

So, dividing the playing field in three price ranges for chassis only (lenses, flash, memory cards and other not included), as below...

- class 1: up to USD 2,000
- class 2: from USD 2,000 to 3,500
- class 3: higher than USD 3,500

How would you rate the currently available digital SLRs? What is a must, what is necessary, what is nice-to-have and what is just gizmo-caca-for-tech-freaks?

Thanks,


Muzza

P.S.: a note on Minolta optical SLRs. I have been shooting with Minoltas for at least ten years, and the 700si is my third one. In a world where Canon and Nikon and fancied over, I really enjoyed my relationship with Minolta (maybe because they used to sponsor the Toyota group C cars?). However, their cameras - although very resourceful - are quite fragile. I spent throusands of dollars in repairs, prism re-alignments and similar things.