Which camera is best? And why?

I'm looking to upgrade to a more pro camera and was thinking which of these is best: Nikon D5100, Sony a65, Sony a57. And why is it the best. If you think of another camera, better, include it and why. My limit is at least $1, 000 but I don't want a camera that's just cheaper I want great picture taking camera HQ. Thanks in advance.

Added (1). And Nikon D3200

Go to Walmart.

Why don't you go to dpreview and compare the cameras. I'm a pro and that's what I'd do. For the most part, on this site, you are trusting the opinions of people that may or may not have a clue what they are talking about. I'd venture to say far to many are just giving their opinion based on a bias not on facts. I've made my living with a camera for the past 25 years but I don't know all the cameras intimately. I can't even do a truly fair comparison between the Nikon D4 and Canon 1D mark whatever number they are up to now. Just my 2 cents. BTW, the D5100 is supposed to be a great little camera.

The Sony's are nice, but the don't have the full range of lenses available for the Canons and Nikons. I would stay with one of them. For about $1, 000, you can also get the Canon D60, which is a really nice camera.

Pretty much any Canon or Nikon dSLR in whatever price range you can afford will be a good choice. Once you get past the initial hump of getting a dSLR, the real differences in photo quality is going to be the person shooting the photo, and the lens choice.

Expensive cameras don't take better photos.

It's the skill of the photographer that is responsible for high quality images.

Give a good photographer a cheap point and shoot, and the images will almost always be better than a novice using an expensive DSLR.

There's nothing wrong with getting a good camera, just remember, you will have to work at learning how to use it. It won't work miracles on your images.

It does not matter which of them you buy the pictures will mostly be rubbish except for a very few luck shots.

And they will always be so, until you realize it is not the camera that takes the picture, it is you.

Then, if you take the time to really read the manual and learn what the camera does and how to control it and work with it, will you start getting decent shots.