Have you considered a Pentax?

As a long time Nikon SLR film shooter, I was looking for a DSLR some years ago.  Before the Nikon D200 appeared, no reasonably priced Nikon would accept my (AI converted) film lenses, so I bought a *ist DS Pentax (I think that was the model).  I was looking for a reasonably small body with a decent viewfinder, and the Pentax delivered.  i also noted that the Pentax had a number of features that were oriented toward a working photographer.

With later models, I returned to Nikon, and the Pentax system moved to my daughter.  She loves it.

--
Dick Frederick