talking cameras is like talking about car tuning etc, it's subjective and all down to personal opinion.
Being a photographer myself i'd have to agree with Sidibear in that it's more about the lens than it is the Camera Body, but a great lens can take great photos on an average body. It doesn't work the other way, ie. Crap lens on a Great Body will still give you below average photos.
You can spend countless hours, days, weeks reading reviews and asking opinions on what is the best Camera, but in the end it's best to have a couple in mind, walk into a store and hold it. As soon as you hold the camera, you'll be able to decide pretty quickly. Canon vs Nikon are all fairly on par these days (can't really go wrong either way) much as APR vs GIAC vs REVO etc are all pretty much on par.
If you're starting out, i'd probably suggest in an average camera body and a good lens. If you can afford it, get a good camera body and good lens.
Pentax have really good camera bodies and have superb lenses. If they had a fullframe camera system i'd switch back to them, as their lenses are the same if not better than Nikon and Canon but without the crazy price tags.
P.S i'm a canon user - love it. love all other brands, but already heavily invested in canon lenses.