I would reccomend Canon products; my last two were Canon brand. I have a S3IS and love it.

There are a lot of good brands: Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, etc.

I would suggest going to Steve's Digicams (linked below) and clicking on Best Cameras (menu at left). He has his recommendations organized by type. You can read the reviews on each of them. If you want to take closeups, make sure your camera has good macro capability.

Have fun! I love camera shopping.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Steve's Digicams

The Canon PowerShot "A" series are good enough to win contests - I have with the old PowerShot A80. The current top-of-the-line PowerShot A-series is the A650. It includes the swing-out, variable-angle view screen that is traditional for the top-of-the-line model in this series. That helps if you end up on the top of a ladder trying to compose that perfect shot.

The PowerShot A720 is about next in line and can probably be had for less than $200 at many stores. These are all "point-and-shoot" cameras, but you need the top-level ones mentioned for a manual shooting mode plus adjustable flash. That will allow you to get properly-rendered reds such as these (taken with a Canon PowerShot A80):

{{gwi:265173}}

Without those adjustments, the reds will over-saturate and you'll get that blazing hot-pink that is often seen for red roses in digital pics - including ones taken with the Canon PowerShots.

If you'll be taking lots of Austin photos, then I'd recommend a Canon.

Canon's copier heritage and resulting, unwavering commitment to "low noise sameness" segues quite well, if rather soullessly, with the Austins in that context.

Just keep the insulin handy.

:):):)

Otherwise, virtually any image stabilized point and shoot, with a bright LCD screen, will do.

Buy one that you think is pretty or fits some other personal criteria. You'll be far more likely to take it out and use it for that reason than any other.

MichaelAT

I'd recomend you spend a few more bucks and get a Nikon D40.
It's about $499.00 but it's a whale of a good camera for more than just Rose photography, and it has a great macro mode (close-ups).
My carry around camera is a Cannon Powershot SD1000 which is very nice for a $199.00 camera that also has a good macro mode and is very compact at about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
Enjoy your shopping. There are a number of good digital cameras out there for not a ton of money.

A flip out and rotate LCD screen is indispensable in garden photography. So, I am saving money for the Canon PowerShot A650 IS, to replace my trusty, tough, 7 years old Canon G2. Too bad Canon got rid of the flip-rotate LCD screen on the their last few models of the G, including the latest G9.

But if you want the best in image quality, you will need to go for a digital SLR. For me, the SLR's size and clumpsiness is against me taking out my son's Canon 30D on garden visits.

Canon Powershot SD750. I don't use one (we're a Nikon household), but there's a fellow who posts shots on HMF who does, and they are terrific. Compact, reasonable, light, easy to use. Watch the YouTube video.

For compacts/digicams, I'd go with Canon which I think have the best image quality, and for DSLRs with Nikon or Canon.

Compacts: I second the Canon A 650 IS (with image stabilization, i.e. anti-shake). It has superb image quality at base ISO settings which means it's good for outdoor/good light photography, but the noise/grain becomes quickly more visible at low light/higher ISO settings because of the very high megapixel density (12 MP) on a relatively small sensor. However, the A 650 IS has the same sensor, processor and lens like Canon's flagship compact cam G9, which also means that the sensor is a bit bigger than most digicams', but still much smaller than the sensors of DSLRs. So if you're looking for a digicam with better low light performance, then it shouldn't exceed 6-8 megapixels. But compared to other digicams in its class, I think that the A 650 IS delivers beautifully natural and very detailed pics at low ISO settings with no noise reduction artifacts to speak of. The flip-out LCD is certainly a very nice feature. Movie quality is also very good. And, importantly, it has manual settings which allows you, if desired, to exercise much more control over the image quality than the pure point and shoot cameras. Bt you can always run it on auto of course.

Now, if you're looking for DSLR's, then Nikon has currently the best machines to offer. For an entry level DSLR, the D40x and D60 are certainly worth a look and very affordable. On the Canon side in this bracket there's the Digital Rebel, which is also a very good camera. Compared to compacts, any DSLR will have superior image quality, especially in low light/at high ISO settings, mostly because their sensors are much larger which reduces the noise. And you can get some good glass! But as cactus joe said, even the small DSLRs are a lot bulkier and heavier than the compacts.

Just in case you'd like to know, I have a Canon G5 and A650
IS and a Nikon D200.

Here are a couple of good digital camera review sites:

www.dpreview.com

http://www.dcresource.com

Enjoy!

Andrea

Here is a link that might be useful: dcresource.com

OK, I have to know, what was that red rose!

I have the Fuji Fine Pix 600, it's a few years old. It doesn't do red or purple roses very well (or I don't) but I love the macro zoom. It's great for taking pictures of disgusting aphids all over your buds.

I'm looking to upgrade to a digital SLR. I'll probably get a Nikon.

Thanks everyone, I think I'm going to go with the Canon
powershot 720IS.