I want to purchase a new digital camera for my photography. I am looking for a more amateur/professional camera for nature photography. I need one that can do the following, preferably: One that takes very high res images. One with a good/fast zoom since I take a lot of close-up pictures of very small things and landscapes you cannot get real close too. Something that can take a little movement. Be a small tremor from me, or movement from the subject. Would prefer a view finder then a screen, but not a must. Something that can take a little moisture and some shaking. I hike a lot for photography, so it could get bumpy. I am also in the south, so the humidity is very high here all year round. I am not going to take it out in a rainstorm (it would be nice if I could), but a little moisture is going to be inevitable. I am looking to spend around $350-$500 on the camera. Anyone know of a model that is good for this? Any personal experiences with it? Any sample photos? Help?

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Boy, I thought I had a great suggestion until you came to the price... However, my daughter just bought a Canon S2 IS that might suit your purposes and come in under budget. It's a 5 MP camera, so you would be able to do some enlargements and a moderate amoun of cropping of your images. It is a 12x optical zoom so you can really "pull in" those distance objects and critters. The near focus is about 4 inches, also, and that's great for flowers, etc. The "IS" stands for "image stabliization" which helps keep things sharp if you are shaking a little bit. It has a viewfinder and also an LCD screen. If you get a decent speed card, such as a 1 GB Sandisk Ultra II, you will be happy with this camera. While you are looking, check the Canon S3 IS, which is a newer model. Is it a 6 MP camera, but otherwise describes pretty much the same.

Canon S3 FujiFilm 5xxx Panasonic FZ series Image Stabilizer is a must because in close-up, even a tiny handshake will blur the images. Camera that supports TIFF or RAW format rather than JPEG, because you can do a lot of works later without damaging the quality of the image. A sturdy tripod and a flash-ring instead of a flash gun. You might also need a few Close-Up Flters, depends on how serious you want to go. Wireless Shutter Release could be helpful too.

If you can shell out a little more, buy a Nikon D50 SLR digital camera. It's a lower end camera but you can build on it. Great resolution. 6.1 megapixels. And you can buy different lenses (macro, zoom, wide angle) later on. You won't be disappointed. If your deadset on price btwn 350-500, check out the Fuji Fine Pix s5200. It has max optical zoom of 10X and resolution of 5.1 mp. I think Fuji's resolution is great, too.