I've been shopping for a digital camera for some time now, and I've been following the published literature pretty closely. (I'm right on the verge of buying one - a Pentax *Ist-DS.) For folks who are primarily interested in taking good, clear pictures - including closeups - of models, though, I'd like to throw out an alternative suggestion.
This is, in a lot of ways, a lousy time to buy a digital camera. The technology is evolving incredibly fast, the prices are dropping, and the industry is in the process of settling on some important standards. (There are, for example, two different image stabilization systems in use at the moment. One puts the stabilizing electronics in the camera body; the other puts them in the lens. I suspect one of those systems will fall by the wayside during the next couple of years - but which one?) The temptation to jump on the bandwagon and buy
something is hard to resist; this is exciting, fascinating stuff. But there is an alternative - one that doesn't cost as much.
This is a great time to buy a film camera. The big manufacturers (Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Konica Minolta) all make superb single-lens reflex cameras that are easy to use, offer lots of levels of automation, produce superb images - and cost about a third as much as their digital equivalents. The dealers often offer bargains on new film cameras, and experienced photographers are lining up to trade in excellent, well-maintained film SLRs on digital ones. And (though lots of people don't seem aware of it) there's a hybrid technology out there that, for extremely reasonable prices, gives a film image virtually all the practical attributes of a digital one.
The street price of a Konica Minolta Maxxum 50 film SLR is currently about $89.95. That camera has auto-focus, an automatic timer, a built-in ttl flash, a built-in exposure meter, and a series of "picture modes" that give the photographer as much, or as little, control as he or she wants in setting the exposure. Add about $100 (maybe less - especially if there's a used camera dealer in your neighborhood) for a moderate-wide-angle-to-moderate-telephoto zoom lens (say, 28-80 mm). Buy a set of three closeup filters (about $50). You now have a rig that's perfectly capable of taking model photos that are just as good as those from a $1,000 digital SLR.
The trick is to (a) use the right film, and (b) take the exposed film to a processor who makes "photo CDs." In my community - the teeming metropolis of Greenville, North Carolina - there are at least ten drugstores (in the Eckerd, Walgreens, and CVS chains) that have the equipment to do that; so does the local Sam's Club. To turn a 24-exposure roll of film into a CD takes an hour, and costs about $6.00. The local specialist photo store charges the same price; the folks there take a little longer, but always do a beautiful job. (The drugstores occasionally get crud on the negatives.)
With that CD you can do virtually anything that can be done with a digital image - including e-mailing it and posting it on a website. I have Adobe Photoshop Elements (a software program that I highly recommend; I paid about $50 for it at Sam's). With that program I can tweak colors, fix glitches (it's great for removing dust from models), crop, clone, burn, dodge, and do all sorts of other things - everything the program can do to a digital image.
Another key element in the process is the printer. I have a Canon i960 that I bought about a year ago, for $130. The prints it produces (on Canon Photo Paper Pro or Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss paper) are, to my eye, indistinguishable from those made by the local specialty camera store - which does excellent work.
To amass the total arsenal described above - camera, lens, closeup filters, software, and printer - from scratch would cost about $420. That amount of money will buy a good digital camera - but not a really sophisticated one suitable for model photography. (The cheapest digital SLR on the market costs about $800. That's just for the camera.)
One other point: a film SLR weighs about 1/2 to 2/3 what a digital SLR weighs. (Not relevant to model photography, but significant if you're carrying the camera around your neck on a hike.)
Here are some model pictures I've taken using the "hybrid" system:
http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/album194
http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/album195
http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/album207
The camera was a Pentax ZX-30 with a 28-80mm zoom lens, fitted (for the closeup shots) with stacking closeup filters. The film was Fuji Reala (ISO 100) - a superb film for model photography. The images were digitized onto CD by my good friends at the local camera store, and tweaked a little with Photoshop Elements 2 (Version 3 is now available). I'm pretty happy with the results.
I have no argument with people who "go digital"; I'm going to do it myself within the next week or two. But those who have trouble raising the money for a digital SLR can get along mighty well with film. The medium isn't dead yet.