I cant say I know what I am doing I just stick it on sports mode with multi-shot and click away
The one that you are looking at Debsallen is almost identical to mine (400D) - I only have the standard lens and have taken some (what I think) are fab pics although there are 1,000's of outtakes! The cannon has several settings (Portrait, Sports, Automatic, night, landscape etc) so if you dont want to mess around too much you can just use those and click away.
I think the things to be prepared for is the size - its not like whipping your little hand held one out of your pocket.
The best things for me is that I can multi-shot - for the action pics, and the clarity of colour and depth (not the right term probably!) of the pictures -they just seem to be so much clearer than I could take with my other camera (which was a very good wee Cannon).
The lens is really important - my neighbour who is way more into it than me has a massive one
so the zoom is amazing - but I'm happy for now with the standard lens till I learn what I am doing. The good thing is that you can add the lens later.
No expert - Nicola knows what she is talking about
- but thats my personal experience!