Can anyone recommend a good starter SLR camera?

In My Humble Opinion
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scr4, Only the discontinued D100 and D70 lack MF lens metering and the 70 is about a thousand dollars or less.

I discourage the use of the histogram as an exposure meter unless someone really knows how to interpret it. When using studio flash I always use an incident flash meter which gives the most consistent results beause it isn’t fooled by unusually dark or light background or clothing. Those conditions can cause histograms to skew dramatically to the right or left and using that to correct exposure is often wrong. Every photographer should have an 18% gray card an know how to use it. I use it in studio shots and always take a test shot with the gray card near the subject. This can be used to set exposure and white balance for raw images, again as the auto settings can be fooled by a biased background color.

Histogram is useful for checking blown highlights but Nikon has an even better feature where the highlights within a certain threshold of max will blink black and white when reviewing an image. When working with digital blown hightlights are critical to avoid, once a pixel is saturated there is no more data and it can’t be fixed in post processing.

Johnny L.A., that takes me back. I started with 35mm about 1980 with a Pentex ME. Bad choice as it was auto only so I traded it for an OM-1. It was a good camera but had several drawbacks for me and after the shutter failed twice I moved to an F2A Nikon that I still have. Titanium foil shutter curtains, argh! No pantywaist rubberized silk shutter here. …that sounds vaguely kinky. The reason for getting the F2 was mainly that it displayed shutter, aperture and meter in the viewfinder while the Oly only had the meter. I never bought any of the optional viewfinders for the F2 but on more than one occasion I’ve removed the viewfinder so I could use the focusing screen like a waist level finder and hold the camera over my head in a crowd. The F2 is battered and bashed but still works perfectly. Though I rarely use it I may take it to a repair shop for an inspection and cleaning.

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The Fuji S2 and S3 also lack MF lens metering, which is why I said <$3000. I didn’t realize the D2H (~$2000) does have the feature - sorry. (Hmm, maybe I should upgrade from D70 to D2H…)

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I got a Nikon FM-10 three years ago. Overall I like it, but I have had to have it repaired three times (one under warranty, one because I dropped it, and once it just broke). The plus side is you get a Nikon lensmount; I’m pretty sure all Nikons use the same lensmount, so I can put any Nikon lens on it. The downside is the camera body isn’t made by Nikon, it’s outsourced, and they do have reliability issues. Still, it’s a Nikon SLR for ~$200 brand new.

KEH.com is a great place to buy used photography equipment.

I found the book Photography to be really good when I was starting w/ photography. I still use it. It’s pricey and has a lot more than just basic info, but it’s really easy to find what you’re looking for and to understand. You might be able to find a used, older edition for less $$$

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I hadn’t realized the D2H had fallen that much in price. I haven’t used one other than in the store but played with a friend’s D1H when she shot my wedding. The frame rate is awesome but the vastly better autofocus is the real advantage. Truthfully I can’t justify my D100 since I decided to stop doing paying work but the D2X is on my lust list. So far only Bill Gates has one he’s used for demos of media center.

ryanbobo, manual focus Nikon bodies can use even autofocus lenses except for the newest G series lenses which don’t have an aperture ring. Technically you can but you’ll only have smallest aperture and the camer won’t be able to meter. You also can’t use pre-77 non-AI lenses but you’re less likely to even see those.