Well I've just gone for a Canon 300D, in the end there were 2 very non-technical reasons I went for the Canon...

1 - Prefered the feel of the Canon, personal preferance, I didn't like the finish on the Nikon.

2 - My Uncle has a Canon EOS SLR, so I can borrow his lenses before buying my own.

Both Cameras out perform anything else that I was looking at, I would have been happy with either but the Canon had the edge for me.

I got a really good deal at Jessops! He threw in about £100 worth of extras and price matched an internet ebay "Buy It Now" price for a SanDisk Ultra II 512Mb CF Card, and 9 months interest free (wasn't going to use that, but why not ) I could have got a grey import much cheaper I suppose.

Cheers

Cris.