any camera guru's here

[Champs]

Off the top of my head, the 550 is one of the "starter" range (I have the 400) and it is a later version of mine. Pixels will be about 12 to18? Which is bloody good for all but professional use. Price depends greatly on the lens that comes with it. The zoom range on that one is ok but not great. Depends if you need a big zoom. The bigger the range, aperture, diameter, of the zoom the greater the $. I stick with Canon as I have interchangeable bits for them, and they are good $ value before going to Nikon.

Have a good search for body/lens combinations you might like. Prices come down for all but latest models, so you can't lose by spending a bit of time looking.