Shoot video or still? Also what is your budget?
While the DSLR cameras are fantastic and the best choice for professional stills and do an admiral job at video they are very expensive and not new user friendly. If you have the skill, or are willing to learn budget about $3000+ to get a body and a couple of lenses.
I think a better option for most newer shooters is a simple 1080p digital camcorder with decent optical zoom, decent macro mode, and ability to attach external boom microphone. Now your talking $200 - $800 for something you can take out of the box and use. It takes decent still pics too as long as your light the subject correctly. It's just so much smaller, and handier than a full professional rig I think most people will find it more useful. Get something that takes SD cards as they are inexpensive, high capacity, and you can find them anywhere including supermarket or drugstores. Seems everytime we are out of town there is always one tip to get memory cards for one reason or another. Extra points if you get something that takes a very common battery. Being able to loan or borrow batteries during an event is huge.
I'm partial to the canons, panasonics, and sanyo's. They sony's are OK as long as they take SD or micro SD cards. I have since standardized all my electronics on SD and MicroSD. Most laptops come with a SD card slot, I like when things just work together.
Get yourself a decent tripod, a $100 boom mike, and some lights and there really is not much you cant do.