[photon]

Heh, problem is with people like me is it usually IS just as simple as picking a model and buying, but I tend to overanalyze everything.

Thing is until you really get into it you don't know what kind of pictures you'll really enjoy to take and that can be a big factor in what camera to get (for example, the Olympus one of its drawbacks is it's autofocus, it's not as accurate as the others for things like sports and fast movement). So sometimes it's best just to get something to start and then when you know more and are ready to move up to a better camera you'll be able to make a better decision.

In that case the Canon or Nikon are probably better choices as their compliment of lenses is huge and you could move up to a more professional body while keeping your lenses.

Anyway, for the lenses, the more zoom a lens has typically the more of a compromise it is. You can get lenses that go from very wide angle to very telephoto (28mm to 300mm or something) but most photographers would rather choose a higher quality lens that focuses on a narrower range (or even a prime lens which has no zoom, so far easier to have good quality at a decent price).

Someone more experienced (Neeper?) though would probably be better in helping you judge what would work best for what you do.