[stonyloam]

I thought I would put in my 2 cents worth. First off I will make a disclaimer; I have a dog in this fight. I am retired from Kodak (I used to do research for Ektachrome film and digital put me out of a job). Anyway I thought I could show what you can do with a relatively cheap camera (with a good lens). The photos below were taken with a Kodak Z7590 camera. 10X optical zoom, 5.0 mega pixel. The first photo was with some zoom from about 3 feet, the others were enlarged using the Kodak software that comes with the camera. You can see the resolution is pretty good. What you would like is the maximum optical zoom with the maximum pixels. So anyway if you go the Kodak (KODAK Digital Cameras & Consumer Photography | Graphic Communications | Medical & Dental Imaging) web site you can get a refurbished Z710 (10X optical zoom, 7.0 mega pixel) camera (40% better resolution than mine) for $159.00. So you don’t have to spend a lot for a decent camera. Hope this helps a little. I always buy the refurbished stuff. Good luck!!