I don't really have big hands so I am not really worried about camera size or shooting/editing in RAW as I have a quad core PC with top end graphics as I do video editing and 3D modelling etc... so its up to date and quite fast. I don't want to change from Canon as I am used to how they work (I have used a 40D, 400D, handeled the 450D and 500D) I hae seen good reviews and photos with the Sony A700 and I am not biased towards any brand, maybe Olympus because of their lack of lenses but I don't know much about their cameras.Don't like the handling of the camera:
This is probably the most difficult to address. You may grow into a camera's quirks and foibles with familiarity, but if you have large hands, you may never be able to comfortably handle a small camera body such as the 400D. In such cases changing to a 500D, which is also small, won't improve things very much. In such an eventuality, since Dave has only the kit and macro lenses it might be that a complete change in mount may be considered. This is why getting down to your local camera shop to try the alternatives is important when upgrading, and especially when purchasing from scratch as once you've bought into a set of lenses then you're going to want to stay put.
I don't want to change camera brands because that would mean changing my Sigma lens too and its served me well and I have around £1000 max to spend and originally though about a birding lens because of the photos of birds people on here were getting, but I decided I might like an upgrade on camera. I don't really care much for live view, but I am into shooting videos and even though I have a video camera, it does not work well half the time and the focusing is bad and seeing the 500D has a video more, I thought it might be a good upgrade, now I did not think of it just because of that and I know 15MP may not seem that much over 10MP, but it is more MP.
I did want, as I said a birding lens, but I'd prefer not to have a preowned lens and new ones are hardly cheap and I'd rather not spend over £800 or more on a lens, at least not yet when I don't yet have a job as just finishing school and I just have saved up just over £1000 and I thought about the Canon 500D and 18-200 IS lens kit. I have noticed the lager ISO's on newer cameras and what would be the use for anything higher than ISO-1600? Well, I'll post more soon, my internets messing up.