hmm, personal experience.(posted 8989 days ago)i got back into photography--which i'd done in highschool--with a yashica t4 super point and shoot, which has some of the finest optics available in a cheap camera, using kodak T400CN. i'd gone on a trip to the navajo reservation in utah and arizona and had come back with some incredible portraits of navajo kids and a great, funny shot of my friends's and my shadows as we made charlie's angels-type shadow-shapes on some rocks in monument valley. i got a few 11x14 enlargements made--at considerable expense--but was never fully satisfied with the results, someone else printing my photos always got them a little different than i did. so i took some classes at the u. of alabama at birmingham to refresh myself on darkroom techniques and technology (i'd never before used variable-contrast paper). anyhow, i fell back in love, and set myself up a darkroom. i see from your email address that you're in or near memphis. i'd be willing to be that the u. of memphis or rhodes offers photography classes at night. taking classes is really the best way to find out about stuff like this; it'll save you buying a lot of expensive equipment and then finding you're really not as into photography as you thought you were.
if you're looking for photo equipment, recommendations really depend on what you're wanting to do, and how much you're wanting to spend.
a great body to start out with is the canon eos elan II, which has some of the nice features of their really high-end models, but is reasonably priced. honestly, the best lens for a beginner would be their 50mm f1.4. it's really sharp and really fast. another poster suggested something like a 28-80mm zoom. if i were you, i'd stay away from a cheap zoom. they're slow--f3.5-4.5--and generally kind of crappy. if you have the money (about $1200.00) and are planning on a lot of portraits, canon's 70-200mm f2.8 zoom is a beautiful thing. it's the lens i use about 75% of the time. don't bother with a flash to begin with, other than what might be built-in to the body.
keep in mind, that no matter what people tell you, there is no really significant difference between canon and nikon. for a few years canon had a real advantage in autofocus speed, but nikon is catching up, though it's fast-focusing lenses are pretty expensive right now. have a look at philip greenspun's excellent site, http://www.photo.net , where there are lots of equipment reviews. keep in mind too that you might want to buy some used equipment. there's plenty of *really* good used stuff out there, if you look carefully. also have a look at http://www.bhphotovideo.com , the website of b & h photo in new york, by most accounts the cheapest and most trust-worthy of the mail order houses. i buy nearly everything from them.
as for darkroom equipment, i have an older beseler 23C dichro, which features a head in which i can change the color and not have to use variable contrast filters. i use a schneider componon-s 50mm lens. i print almost exclusively on ilford multigrade IV, fiber-based paper (though you really ought to start out on resin-coated paper), which i usually sepia tone just slightly to warm it up a little. i shoot almost exclusively kodak's T400CN film, which is a black and white film that works chemically like a color film, which means it can be run through automatic processing machines at wal-mart, target, etc. (i have mine done at a professional lab for safety and consistency.) i shoot this film for two reasons: 1, i'm a graduate student, and have very little photography time as it is. when i do have time, i'd rather be printing than developing film, and 2, it's fast (400 iso) and very, very fine grained. if you take a class, though, your instructor will probably start you out on a "real" black-and-white film, so you can learn to process it yourself.
anyway, i hope this answers your questions a little better. feel free to ask anything else.
good luck.