Really good read Luke, I was bored on my lunch break at work so made the most of it reading your post
.
I use a Nikon I got second hand from eBay, best method I have found for working out what an earth I am doing is to keep taking pics and playing with the settings, a bit of trial and error!
I think its important for people to be 'brave' and try taking photos in manual mode, I am sure there are lots of people who have some amazing cameras but they have been left on 'auto' since they were taken out the box
!