Quote from DeadWolfBones :

D700

i wonder if nikon has a financial aid program

Quote from spankmeyer :

You are making a mistaaaaake.

why?

Quote from mrodgers :

The number of days doesn't relate to the number of photos or the hours of operation. How long was the camera turned on each day?

I ask that because I took a trip for work and turned my camera on at noon. It was a 5 hour road trip in which I took about 300 photos. The camera was left on the whole day. Stopped to check in at the hotel and switched cards which was the only time the camera was turned off. At about 6:30 pm, we went to the hockey arena in which I spent another 4-4.5 hours taking 300-350 photos at the hockey game. I turned it off after the game because I was at the mercy of the driver and he wanted to go to the casino (I'd never spent $20 faster in my life than I did that first 3 minutes I was there, Haha.) I have a discharge function on the camera and when I got back to my room, I set it to discharge the batteries for about 2 hours while work paid for my beer for those 2 hours. I don't have a battery meter, it only tells me when they are depleted, but when I got back to my room for the night, they were still discharging. That was around 2 am, so 14 straight hours and 600 or so photos, about 1/4th of those with flash, and the batteries still had charge.

My other experience with AA NiMH batteries is with charging a 130 mah Lipo battery in my micro RC airplane. I could charge the Lipo probably 10 times plus flight time with the controller with a single charge on the NiMH. That's quite a bit considering I am also charging the Lipo with it as well.

I pay $10 for 4 batteries and the charger and $5 for a package of 4 batteries. I see off-brand camera proprietary batteries run for $20 or OEM for $40-45.

So, I would estimate that I could run all day (long day, 12-14 hours) and at least half the next day on 4 NiMH, or just toss them in the charger overnight every night for $10 worth of batteries and charger, probably with the capability of taking 1000 photos with a full charge.

i mentioned both days and number of photos, because I had my canon turned on almost 12 hours a day but made only over 400 photos...

the story you wrote is something im reading for the first time in my life, then it should mean that AA batteries are not so bad

Quote from spankmeyer :

You are making a mistaaaaake.

mistake about what?
the xsi or the pentax?

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

...with Eneloops or good quality 2500 mAH batteries you should be getting roughly the same battery life (500-600 shots per charge) as you would with a proprietary battery.

I'd be most disappointed with 500-600 shots per battery on my DSLR using a proprietary lithium ion battery. I've taken 600 shots before and only used half the battery. And since my vertical grip contains two of the things, I can have a long weekend away and not need to take a charger with me.

AA batteries have their uses, but they don't belong in DSLRs imho.

Back on topic, I'd have to agree with the Pentax K-x as being the best entry level within the indicated price limit. The only downsides that I'm aware of are a lack of focus point indication in the viewfinder (a dealbreaker for me personally, but probably not for many people), and a more limited choice of lenses - even if some of those lenses are excellent. Remember when you buy a DSLR, you buy into a whole system, and you'll need to research which system offers the most things you want. Look at things like lens selection, future body upgrades, whether features like weather sealing or image stabilisation are available, etc etc.