E500? Isn't that quite old? You'd probably have to get a second-hand one.
How wide a range is wide? If you want something really fast be prepared to pay the price. :bsmilie:
Aperture wise, not much of a problem usually, since you can always switch lenses.
If you want a new one, at a budget price (if price is indeed a concern, like it was for me), may I suggest Pentax K100D - which is entry level, and definitely an excellent cam with excellent reviews.
My advice is to decide which brand to go - if you're into it long term and are planning to buy lenses, etc, not just sticking to kit then you might want to factor in availability and all that jazz. The 2 common brands in Singapore would be Canon and Nikon, and every brand has their strengths and weaknesses. There'd also be Sony, Pentax, Olympus, which are less common, but that doesn't mean that they suck, despite what all the funny Canon and Nikon buddies would tell you.
One thing about the common brands would be that they do not have any on-body Image Stabilisation.
Not sure if you know of these review sites, but they provide excellent and rather balanced reviews of cameras (whether consumer or DSLR) imho -
DP Review and Imaging Resource, google for them. =)