Buying and SLR camera

I'm planning to buy my first SLR so I would really want it to be affordable and easy to use.

please feel free to suggest any brand of slr camera with it's price.

and How much does a Nikon d40 cost in Japan?
which is better(and affordable) Nikon d40 or canon eos digital Rebel xti?

thanks:D

Which camera is best ? check www.dpreview.com/ their reviews are awesome.

Are you talking about buying cameras in Japan? the warranty wouldn't be good in your home country..The model names are also different in Japan and, if the cameras you are looking for have been sold for a couple of years outside Japan, they likely don't sell them anymore over there.
How good a photographer are you and what are your goals? I used to have a SLR and found them extremely cumbersome as one has to keep changing lenses all the time when travelling. I also found that the big zoom was intimidating to people in the street.
I now have a digital camera with a fixed lens that has a huge zoom yet it is physically small. Other friends, who like fiddling with their photos at home, also have switched to fixed lenses digital cameras. The quality of the photos is good enough, great actually, as none of us has any intention of printing huge posters.
We don't even print photos anymore.. We just e-mail them, save them on CDs and on USB keys.
Anyway, if you go to Japan have a look at Yodobashi cameras and Bic cameras. These 2 companies have huge stores..with hundreds of different camera models. You can google Yodobashi cameras and find prices for some of the cameras.

Although it is true for most cameras, Olympus is the only brand of camera that supports a worldwide warranty for cameras bought in another country. e.g. if you buy an Olympus DSLR in Japan, it will still have a valid warranty in your home country. Olympus also have the smallest true DSLRs.

As for names, it is mainly Canon that has different names for its DSLRs. DLSRs from Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus all have the same names outside of Japan.

If you consider DSLRs to be too big, then you could also consider the new "micro 4/3" format, which features interchangeable lenses, without the mirror box of a DSLR. These cameras are smaller than real DSLRs. Panasonic have the G1 & GH1, which look like a very small DSLR. The GH1 is almost identical to the G1, but it has HD video. The Olympus E-P1 has been released recently, and is even smaller than the G1/GH1.

Oh, and if you are going to buy your camera in Japan, then you need to consider language... Sony and Panasonic have Japanese only on their Japanese domestic models, while Nikon, Canon, Pentax & Olympus all English selectable language.

I forgot to mention that I'll be living in Japan.my bad.:)
I was just planning ahead that's why asked the current prices of cameras.
but anyway thank you. :D

Hey: my husband bought his first SLR here a few months ago, a Canon EOS Kiss F. In America, the Kiss range is called 'Rebel', so it may be the same one you're looking at. It was around Y400,000 from Yamada Denki, though I reckon you could do a lot better if you shopped around in Akihabara. It's not as solid as the Nikon, but we've had no problems. The live-view display is a real boon. Also, the in-built info can be changed to English, no problem.

Ruth,

I hope you made a typo and meant 40,000 yen instead of 400,000 yen.

and How much does a Nikon d40 cost in Japan?
which is better(and affordable) Nikon d40 or canon eos digital Rebel xti?

Both are outdated cameras and you may want to consider the Nikon d3000 or d5000 or the Canon Kiss F or Kiss X3 instead. Otherwise you can find the d40 for around 35000 yen and the xti (known in Japan as the Kiss Digital X) for around 40,000 yen. They are all comparable cameras but I'd get the latest versions as the price is about the same.

Another excellent combination of good features and small size for a DSLR is the Olympus E-520.

I've seen it recently (as a run out) Bic & Yodobashi, but you can find it with a two lens kit online in Japan for just over 52,000 yen, which is a bargain.
Seeing you'll be living in Japan, ask friends/collegues to help you order it.
http://kakaku.com/item/00490811126/