Nikon D40.
Good for beginners. I am using for the last 2 years and had no problem at all.
The flash light is not good enough for indoor shooting, especially when zoomed in.
The life of the battery is excellent.
The body gives a kind of plastic-feeling when holding in the hand (not solid - kind of feeling).
Over all I like the sharp pictures and the easy to use nature of Nikon D40.

I have a very successful experience with my Nikon D40 and thoroughly recommend it.

This camera is pitched at new DSLR users, and it hits the mark. It is quite small, light and very easy to use right out of the box.

There is plenty of flexibility to get as down-and-dirty as you want with manual exposures, aperture and shutter settings, white balance, etc etc. Or, you just switch it on and snap away. Pop in a 2Gb card, set the camera to Medium JPEG and you'll get over 1,000 pictures.

Image quality is great - do not be put off by the fact that it is "only" 6 Megapixels. Nikon know how to get the very best out of the 6 MP sensor used in the D40, and its plenty good enough.

Battery life is really, really good.