Picking a brand for the camera body depends on what lenses, flashes and other accessories you already own [or can get cheaply].

If you have no current investment in photo hardware, you can be more flexible. [See what fits your budget, hands & brain]

I would recommend the reviews [and forums] over at http://www.dpreview.com/ [the forums have a fairly good signal to noise ratio].

Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Leica use lens based optical image stabilization [not all lenses will have the feature]

Pentax, Olympus and Sony use in body 'sensor shift' image stabilization. This is usable with almost any lens - but not optimized for any particular lens

A new alternative to a DSLR is an 'EVIL' [Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens] camera. The first production camera in this category is the Panasonic G1.