re: DSLR camera and lense buying advice

There are some good suggestions posted above. I'm a Canon guy and have a lot of money invested in equipment but I was at Sam's this week and they have a good deal on a T5 with kit lenses that is great for starting out.
You may want to check it out.

I have photos that look like that taken on an iPhone 4 and 5.

Sure they can take great photos at times, but sometimes you need more from your camera.

Q: What kind of camera should I buy, Nikon or Canon?

If you’re not already invested in lenses, flip a coin.

Q: What kind of lens should I buy?

A: What kind of pictures are you planning to take?

Because here’s the deal: there is no magic pill that will reverse the effects of aging, remove unwanted pounds without diet or exercise, grow you an instant billionaire overnight by working from home. It’s the same thing with photography. There is no brand name or system (DSLR or mirroless or PAS or medium format or instant) body-lens combo that will deliver you the images you want. And there is no single lens that will work for every situation, every job. (Although, there are some that come close; but again, that depends on the "look" the photographer is trying to achieve, and that's not something anyone else can answer for you. I have a 35mm f/1.4 from a German brand that they will pry from my cold, dead fingers, and it's on my various digital bodies 90 percent of the time. But that's me.)

Buy the best lens you can afford, because lenses are investments; a digital camera body depreciates. Don't buy a kit lens (the crappy zoom/variable aperture lens that camera manufacturers and stores package with a camera body and sell to people who have no idea how important the lens is in this transaction), you're better off shooting with a phone camera than a crappy kit lens, especially if your main subject is indoors. The glass is where it all begins. It's not the phones that are taking good/bad images; it's the (especially Zeiss) glass in the newer smart phones making that imaging difference. It's all about the lens.

Lots of pros are unloading their DSLR systems so you might be smart to pick up a used system right now rather than buying new (especially as the market for selling DSLR gear later is shrinking.) LINK

Look at Fuji's X-T1; the lens lineup won't be anything to write home about until Q2 2015, but the "pancake" lens (27mm f/2.8, which is the equivalent of a 35mm SLR lens) is an affordable and favorably reviewed start and they're all on sale this week. If the X-T1 is more than you want to spend on a body, work down (X-M1) and spend more money on a good prime lens. LINK

Hope this helps. Giving camera buying advice is a lot like setting friends up on a blind date. LINK

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A crop factor is nothing more than a crop adjustment. It doesn't mean your 300mm lens becomes 450mm.

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Semantics. The cropping itself provides equivalent magnifiction by the sensor crop factor.

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Compare this..... Nikon D5100

To this..... Sony A6000

Check out the images online, especially low light images. Look at the continuous shooting rate for action shots for both cameras.

No real contest between the two.

ETA: Compare the images for any two cameras here... LINK

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These are at complete odds with one another. I have a 4.5 month old and I've already taken over 1,000 pics of her.

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Yup, my son is a little over a week old and I have nearly 2 Gbs of photos already.

Leading up to his birth I also practiced with my first dslr outside and taking tons of pictures around the house. I already have some great shots. Pictures that I could have only dreamed of getting with my iPhone.

Why would someone down vote the Panasonic GH4 post that I made?

LINK

For the money, it is the best camera in this thread. It can stand up to the others from a still picture standpoint, and it blows every other camera out of the water for video. The only comparable camera is the Sony A7S, but it is $1,000 more expensive.

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Folks are doing themselves a disservice by limiting themselves to the Nikon/Canon choices.

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Canon and Nikon lead the industry in lens options.

All those big white lenses you see on the sidelines at sporting events are Canon L-glass lenses.

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For the money

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You mean for the most money?

He could nearly buy 3 Nikon d3300's for the cost of that camera.

He wants a quality entry level camera, and you are linking a camera that videographers use.

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DSLRs are on their way out.

Go mirrorless with a Sony A7s or Panasonic GH4

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Seriously considered it, but I like being able to use my viewfinder in low light.