This is a tricky one to answer as it depends on the user. I myself bought an Olympus Evolt E-510 off a car audio forum from a member that had it used. This camera is my first DSLR and before I had a small pocket point and shoot digital camera. I love my dslr however some higher end users will not really enjoy it as it is not one of the "golden cameras" that runs more than our trucks cost. lol. Mine was nice and came with a 8gb memory card, normal and telescopic lens, UV filters, 2 batteries (one was really old and dying so I bought 2 new ones to replace them), external remote, external flash for hot shoe, video cables and a huge bag to carry it all in. I got it used as mentioned before and had to do some basic things to get it back in working order. First was to clean the outside of the lens as it was sticky like pop was spilled on it. I then cleaned the inside of the camera body over the image sensor and then the lens and like I am known for doing, I threw some carnuba wax on the body of the camera to help protect it from water and to keep it looking good.
I say if anything see if you can get her to go shopping. One thing i've noticed is some people are really hell bent on what brand they want. See if you can ask what features she wants. Does she want one with video capability or just pictures only? What kind of pictures will she be taking to better gauge the features she may want to use? Will she need to take photos from a long distance or mostly up close? I highly recommend with any camera you get to purchase an external flash that mounts onto the camera. The built in ones are okay but they usually cast a shadow or are not quite bright enough. I love the flash that came with my camera when I got it, it also is an olympus and it will adjust the settings automatically for you as you zoom in and out as well as play with the f-stop and aperture. You can set it manually as well if you would like but the automatic feature on it is really handy when you need to take a picture fast. Final question, how experienced of a DSLR user is she? I learned from the ground up on my camera so I learned all the settings on the camera and how to modify them to get a great picture. Every time I take a picture, I adjust the exposure, f-stop, brightness, etc all manually. If she is not that experienced, maybe a newer DSLR that has an automatic feature will be nice for her so she can gradually learn how to use the cameras settings manually down the line.
