I have recently purchased the Canon 500D, I bought the standard kit so came with the main body, 18-55mm lens (with covers), battery, battery charger and camera strap (need to purchase SD card/memory card separately). I took it out of the box and was pleasantly surprised how light it was even with the lens attached. I picked up the manually and instantly thought that it covers a lot of languages then looked agin it was all English, I found it hard reading as I was knew to DSLR's and all the technical words, so advise if buying as your first DSLR then purchase a how to book for the camera. It was fairly strait forward putting the lens on getting it all ready and then you put it in the fully auto and you feel like a pro, but then you flick onto the manually modes and you see all these numbers, letters and pictures and it all gets a bit confusing (thats why I advise you buying the book). After a while with fiddling with the modes you soon get the idea of what does what and after using the camera a lot you realize that you need a longer zoom as the 55mm end is the furthest it goes and is around the same as what you can see with your eyes, nothing wrong with the 18mm side gives you a wide angle for landscapes, so it may seem costly but buying the better package that comes with the 18-200mm is a better idea.