Just for your info, I just helped a friend buy a EOS66 at AP for $430 nett, with free camera bag and UV filter. Well the discount from the SRP of $499 is not much, but is within my friend's budget so it was ok with her. The kit comes with 28-90mm lens, but if you buy with the 35-80mm lens it will be $350 (but no point lah).
ok before pple start saying that one shld get at least a eos300 or eos30 to begin with, I must say that my friend is a lady who likes the control and feel of SLR, but will never go into the intricate technical details of photography. So with a limited budget of $400+, I recommended the EOS66 to her.
In my opinion, the EOS66 is quite good enough if you're like my friend. It has all the basic exposure modes, offers ETTL etc, only lacking a DOF preview button and having only 3 focus points, which wouldn't matter much to me (at least) cuz I don't use those at all. Perhaps the focussing speed is slower too, not too sure about that.
Another model in her contemplation was Nikon F55, selling at $420, just $10 cheaper. But the AF is slower, and noisier (with the kit lens), and my friend preferred the feel of the Canon.