I expect that despite the price difference, you will find very little difference in terms of image quality for normal use. As people have said here, at low ISO's it can be impossible to tell the the difference between quality of a £350 bottom of the range SLR and a £3,000 top of the range body. So image quality won't be the defining factor, but instead extra functionality.
So it's just justifying to yourself whether the extra functions supply you with sufficient value. Personally I find it hard to justify the extra money, and prefer the prices of cameras around the Canon 40D / Nikon D80 price range. With the money saved you can afford a nice high quality lens and the cameras certainly up to the job of getting some nice shots.
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Jason Moller
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