An Army of 1 in 10

When I was in middle school, one of the classes I took was photography and I promptly fell in love with it. I took the class again in my senior year and once again fell in love with photography. Over the past n years, I haven’t kept up with that love very much because of the very fact that I just couldn’t afford a good camera. In recent days, I’ve been bitten by the photography bug again.

So now I’m looking for a good camera. I would prefer not to buy a film camera, so I can save on film costs, but the camera must be an SLR so that I can have more control over how my images turn out. I’m definitely not a professional, so I won’t be considering professional-grade cameras, but I would be willing to spend as much as $1,000 on a good camera (preferably significantly less). One that can take black/white pictures in addition to color would be a bonus (I prefer b/w photography).

Since I’ve been out of the photography scene for … a while, I’m woefully ignorant on camera prices and features. I don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a camera only to find another one with the same capabilities for much less. Any advice would be immensely appreciated.