not a fan of the nikons, had a feel of it and it felt like a toy, not a camera.
As I say it's personal taste, I have used nikon since i was 8 and i'm now....well have a guess. Remember once you have brought into a system it's very hard to change over to another brand 'cause you have to change all the lenses, flash guns and accessories.
I used to like the earlier film based canon's but the modern ones seem too light and plasticy. The Nikons, to be fair at lower end of the market also feel light but they are built around an aluminium chassis and the higher end nikon's are built aroung a magnisium chassis.
Being a nikon registered pro has it's advantages:
1: discount from nikon
2: free lens hire at major sporting events like the btcc, moto gp
3: cheap film (50 rolls of pro level kodak for like £20)
and the list goes on
Get the camera you feel happy with to hold in both portrait and landscape orientations (some cameras are a bitch to use when you turn them on their side).
And more important than everything else, get out there and use the bloody thing. In 2005 my number of photos in my album was about 25,000 taken, over the past year my average image count is in excess of 100,00 images per year. This includes the motorsport photography i do for Renault motorsport uk, landscape, glamour etc etc