I really want to get into photography because my little camera is great for general fun use, but I want something I can do close ups with, black and white, sharp pics, etc. Hubby told me to start saving up for Christmas but I have no clue about cameras. Any suggestions? I don't want to have to upgrade in a year.
if you want to do closeups you probably want to get a digital SLR (dslr) and possibly a macro lens. digital is really the way to go now. Anything above 10 megapixles will give an excellent quality photo. Most DSLR features are similar between brands. The price difference usually depends on the megapixles and the type of lenses that come with the camera. With a photo exiting software such as photoshop you can chant any digital picture from color to b&w and to anything inbetween. For a descent DSLR you should expect to pay anywhere from 400.00 and up depending on the brand and weather the camera comes with any lenses or not.
There are tons of high quality point and shoot digital cameras out there as well. Some even less that 100.00 but you will not be able to take good close up photos.
I just purchased the Sony A350 DSLR. I paid 799.00 for just the body. I have 2 lenses from my manual SLR that will fit it. It is set to arrive by FedEx on Tuesday!!!! I can't wait. It is 14.5 mexapixles!! I went with the higher quality because I do Sr pictures for a lot of the students at school.
Canon and Nikon are also popular. I haven't used them though so I can't speak about their quality.
I found a Panasonic "Lumix" digital camera at Odd Lots for $100 (on sale) with a Leica lens. It is 7.2 megapixels and does fantastic for my purposes....which is not professional photography! It has a "macro" feature but I haven't used it much yet for close-ups... It's not a SLR, you take a huge jump up in price when you go that route, but maybe you will need it for more control with your close-ups.
There are so many digital cameras available, is there a camera store (like Cord Camera) where you are? The salespeople there can be really helpful.
There is a great little digital called the Canon G9. It has 12 megapixels and is a point and shoot with many settings. Neat thing about it is that is under $500.00--IF you can find one. They are high in demand. Its a hot little camera. I have several Canon SLR and pocket cameras. I really love my Powershot Pro 1 for macro shots and I use my Canon Rebel XTi for other things. I have a good zoom lens and macro lens for it.