Which Digital Camera To Get?

For a long time my choice of a camera was the Nikon F5 35mm SLR, and no this was before the digital camera age. However, I never got one since at the time the F5 cost around $3000 for just the SLR body alone.

Now, there are many Digital SLRs available in the market, and many of them cost under $1000.

I really enjoy photography, and really want to get back into it, but for a very long time money was a huge wall for me.

Now that I got my new laptop, I can now save up for a digital SLR camera. The question is, which one I should get? Most of the Nikon D SLR cameras under $1000 don't have the auto focus motor built into the body, which I really don't like. The Nikon D90 D SLR is the only mid range camera that has the auto focus motor built into the body, which means it's able to use almost all Nikon lenses, but it's cost $1,200! Also Nikon camera's around the mid range is only around 10-12 mega pixels.

Cannon has an 18 mega pixel camera that cost $800! However I am not sure if the auto focus motor is built into the camera body or the lens.