Digital Camera Question - What is a good digital camera to get for a novice photographer?

I am a graphic design student who is interested in photography - specifically pin-up/fashion photography- and would like to use the shots for my art work. The only problem is that Graphic Design school is expensive enough, so I plan on teaching my self the basics in digital photography......so I would like some recommendations on a starter digital camera that isnt too expensive! I have a simple Kodak Easy Share 3.1 camera....im assuming it wont make the cut! Although I use photoshop to manipulate photo's i take - I figure I would still need a better camera to take better shots.... any recommendations/ideas on cameras, equipment, how to get started would help and be greatly appreciated.

Best Answer: You don't say where you want to take photos, but this will be the key to your decision. A built in flash in a compact camera will only work up to 3m from the subject, will create unattractive, hard shadows and bright glaring refelctions. To avoid this you would need an SLR camera with a separate flash unit. You can add a diffuser to this to give much more subtle lighting effects, better for portraits.
The other essential is a telephoto lens, as the best effects are usually achieved when you move yourself further away from the subject, then zoom in.
There's more advice on choosing the right camera on my website.

- probably one of the top cameras in the $300 range is the Casio EX-Z600. It has 4x optical zoom, 6.1MP and an f2.7 lens (the widest currently available on a point and shoot)

- I personally use a Sony CyberShot DSC-S500 Digital Camera. I sell on eBay and need clean sharp photos for my ads and this camera gives me exactly that time and time again. Its not that expensive...under $200. Here are a couple of website images of some of my pictures (each site only has one pic) to give you an idea of what this little guy can do...oh yeah and its small enough to carry around in a purse...the memory comes from removable memory sticks...it runs off two AA batteries or plugs into the wall...it has different modes black and white, reverse colors, etc and different output sizes as well as other features...okay here are the sites...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/sta...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/czs...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/par...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/dad...
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http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/feb...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/jun...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/jun...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/laz...
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http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/yel...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/Pic...
http://www.myimagehub.com/files/3439/squ...

- I really like anything by Olympus. I've found Sony's camera's to be unreliable and they don't have anything exceptional to brag about.
Canon's are also really good.

- If you just starting chose CANON Eos 300 D. Its not so exspencive, easy control, qality is perfect ,ISO to 800 so you can make pictures at evening to, not so big good for family and design photos . Beter of NICON becourse of focusation speed ...