I have a D7000 and love it. While I'm not a technophobe, I do like my tools to get the hell out of my way and just do the job. I really like the D7000 for that, except for the fact that it's on the heavy side for carrying around all the time - only gets taken out when I specifically anticipate to see something interesting.
I have tried Fuji X100 and loved almost everything about it - the image quality, the awesome hardware controls, but what made me return it was the slow and shifty autofocus. It's great for people photography though, it's got the best damn built in flash I have ever seen. I took some portraits of friends in the city at night and faces were all evenly lit, very natural look. Things like that usually look terrible with a DSLR's built in flash. So if she does not mind a somewhat slow autofocus, it could be a very good camera for someone who likes traditional hardware controls.
As for the lower end DSLRs, I tried a few recently, choosing for a less techie friend, and my final opinion was that they are even harder to use that the higher end stuff like my D7000. If you set the picture controls well, you may not need to change anything for 90% of the shots, but when you do need adjustments, it's such a hassle with the mainly menu-driven controls.
I have yet to try out the new crop of the mirrorless cameras, and I suppose based on the above, it may very well be the solution, if the X100 is too expensive.
I have tried Fuji X100 and loved almost everything about it - the image quality, the awesome hardware controls, but what made me return it was the slow and shifty autofocus. It's great for people photography though, it's got the best damn built in flash I have ever seen. I took some portraits of friends in the city at night and faces were all evenly lit, very natural look. Things like that usually look terrible with a DSLR's built in flash. So if she does not mind a somewhat slow autofocus, it could be a very good camera for someone who likes traditional hardware controls.
As for the lower end DSLRs, I tried a few recently, choosing for a less techie friend, and my final opinion was that they are even harder to use that the higher end stuff like my D7000. If you set the picture controls well, you may not need to change anything for 90% of the shots, but when you do need adjustments, it's such a hassle with the mainly menu-driven controls.
I have yet to try out the new crop of the mirrorless cameras, and I suppose based on the above, it may very well be the solution, if the X100 is too expensive.