I'm not a photographer but I do work with a bunch so I am exposed to a bunch of different camera's for a variety of purposes. I like the canon's (mostly because of the software on them but that's a whole other story) Nikon's take amazing rapid shots, olympus uses their own memory configuration (it's really a modified sd card but a pain in tha ass anyway) Pentax makes some good stuff, and the kodak slr's are amazing.
If I had to pick 2 I would say the Nikon D2X or D70 or D200 or the kodak SLR/n (if price is truely no object)
Honestly the nikon's are the cameras to beat.