First off, hello to all. My name is Brenton, I live in Australia and i have just recently decided to upgrade from the little point and shoot to a DSLR. i am a fairly active sort of guy, i enjoy sports particularly snowboarding, surfing and footy. Anyhow just looking for some recommendations for cameras, i have sort of looked around myself and am leaning towards the canon 450D but just incase there is one out there i have overlooked i thought i'd post up a thread anyhow, so in advance cheers for an help you can offer.

Budget

* What budget have you allocated for buying this camera? Please be as specific as possible.
$1000-$1500

Size

* What size camera are you looking for? Or does size not matter at all to you?
Not to important, just looking for something versatile

Features

How many megapixels will suffice for you?
just looking to upgrade from the point and shoot so anything above 10MP will be good.

* What optical zoom will you need? (None, Standard = 3x-4x, Ultrazoom = 10x-12x, Other - Specify)
i think standard should be alright, but longer zoom could come in handy for sports..

* How important is “image quality” to you? (Rate using a scale of 1-10)
8/10

Do you care for manual controls?
yes, i am quite keen to learn how to properly use a proper camera

General Usage

* What will you generally use the camera for?
haha taking photos.. kidding, mostly outdoor stuff, occasionally the odd photo of people and some night shots aswell

* Will you be making big prints of your photos or not?
probably not

Will you be shooting a lot of indoor photos or low light photos?
mainly outdoor but occasionally indoor or night photos

Will you be shooting sports and/or action photos?
yes, footy games and motorsport will be fairly high up, but also snowboarding and surfing..

Miscellaneous

Are there particular brands you like or hate?
canon and Sony have taken my interest

Are there particular models you already have in mind?
Canon 450D and the Sony A330

(If applicable) Do you need any of the following special features? (Wide Angle, Image Stabilization, Weatherproof, Hotshoe, Rotating LCD)
image stabilization is a must, my hands are about as steady as plane landing in a cane field.. however i have read that lenses have IS so thats why i'm leaning towards the canon, even though it doesn't have IS in the body like the sony..