Digi Cams are coming on leaps and bounds lately. Just get the biggest number of pixels you can afford. Personally got an Olympus 2500. Colour is best I have seen and if you can understand it, the manual and semi auto settings can produce some stunning results. It is also SLR, very useful for macro work. Also go for the biggest memory card you can afford. Batteries are the biggest problem. The Olympus gets around 250-300 shots (3 x 64MB compact flash fulls) at 1712 x 1326, on one charge of metal hydrides. Nikon Coolpix is good camera but eats batteries (around 25-30 shots per charge)because you have to use the video screen to compose your shots. Use review screen sparingly. Get a USB card reader for down loading, otherwise downloading is the same speed as slow modem. I use a Canon BJC 7000 printer and it produces photo quality repros upto A4 but any of the leading brand printers are good, if you go top of the range. Colour laser if you can run to it, is best. Use good quality gloss photo paper, like Polarid or Kodak as this can make a mediocre printer good. I use Ulead PhotoImpact V6 software, I find it more user friendly than most and is good value. Paintshop Pro is good but you need good plugins and is not as intuitive. Photoshop is just not good value, in my opinion.
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