shopping for dslr camera...bought one finally

My P & S nikon camera was not able to capture the images the way I wanted it to.So we decided to upgrade to a dslr camera. There is so much of a good deal of dslr cameras manufactured by Sony, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic etc that it really becomes difficult to find a camera that suits your needs and is affordable too, which in our case meant a price range of 500-800 dollars. Since my knowledge of dslr's was minimal, so I started with youtube videos to know what features are important in a dslr and also compare cameras of different manufacturers. Also I looked at the price range of cameras from amazon.com, from where we eventually bought our camera delivered right at our doorstep within 3 days of ordering it online. I found some good sites for camera comparisons like reviews.cnet.com and dpreview.com which provided extensive user reviews of cameras they bought. One site, i think it was dpreview.com, offered side-by-side
comparison between any number of cameras that you select from the available list of cameras
available in the market for all manufacturers.
The choices of manufacturers was narrowed down to Nikon and Canon, given their lead over others in technological advancement. In Nikon, I liked the D3, D50 and D5000 models but
they all cost over 1000$$ while in Canon, I liked the Canon EOS 50D and higher models which
were again out of the price range we set.
The basic features that I wanted in camera were Megapixels > 6, frames per second > 3 with a
good buffer, good dynamic range, easy-to-use, lightweight, ISO range > 700, CMOS type sensor (consumes less battery than CCD type), atleast 3.5" screen and good picture quality in low light conditions. Canon EOS Rebel XSi fulfilled all these conditions and was rated high in all the websites I visited. We then decided to go check in Best Buy store and compare between the dslrs. The picture quality of canon was excellent and was quite light compared to Nikon D40. The marked price of camera in the store was 750$$ while we got it for 640$$ for amazon.com including the shipping charges. The price of the same camera one and a half years before was 950$$ so we think we have a good camera at a reasonable price.
I hope to use the camera soon in our next trip to Yosemite National Park and then in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.