Kevin,
I am going through this myself at the moment, looking to purchase my first scope, but I have the advantage that I have had the opportunity to use my daughters 8" SkyWatcher Flex Dob with Goto for the past three months.
I am very surprised with the results I have been able to achieve with attaching my Canon 60D on prime focus and taking numerous 20 second exposures then stacking in DeepSkyStacker, along with flats and darks to produce photos of some of the larger Nebulae. The photos don't always work out (lot's of trial and error), but when they do, it is brilliant (at least to my eyes - see below). I know the photos I have produced are far from perfect, but they have encouraged me to take the next step.
As I am really into the photographic side of things and not as concerned with visual astronomy, I intend to initially go with a GSO 6" Ritchey Chretien Astrograph on a HEQ5 Pro EQ mount and will take sub 1 minute photos and stack those. I hope to put this together with all the basics for less than $2,000.00. Down the track I will likely add either a guide scope or an off axis guider to the setup for longer exposures.
http://locost7.info/images/OrionNebula.jpg