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even though my camera will take up to 4 mp's, i'm usually shooting at the 2nd to lowest resolution (1280x960) for web photos. sometimes i'll shoot at 1600 for printed stuff, but i've actually never had to use it at the max resolution of 2272. in fact, i did the photography for the 4 ft tall banners for the buffertech booth at the SHOT show, and all those enlargements were made from 1600 resolution pics.
if most of your applications are for snapping pics for the web and printing no larger than 5x7, you don't really need a hi-res digital camera. but one thing you may not get with a compact camera is the variety of settings, or light metering options, which can be important.
like others have pointed out here, the lens is important, and even more so is the lighting. get more light on your subject and your pics won't come out so grainy. it's always better to shoot with a bit more light than not enough. i always adjust my photos in adobe photoshop anyways. but you'll learn from experience, as TR pointed out. learning is something that will never stop. i'm only in the infant stages of product photography, and haven't even gotten into the realm of the 'professionals'. however, what i've found out is that you don't always need all that expensive equipment to take decent photos - a lot can be done on a shoestring budget and a little ingenuity. i don't have a studio - all my pics are taken in the bedroom, living room or outdoors. you'd laugh at some of the techniques i use. instead of spending $500 on a hotbox (the studio standard lighting diffuser for product photography), i made my own out of a paper grocery bag, tape, and tracing paper. but i did find it necessary to invest about $150 in daylight-balanced studio fluorescent lights, otherwise i'd be a slave to dayllight.
another cheap, simple tip that goes a long way to improving clarity is to use a tripod as much as possible. all my product photography is done with a tripod. if light levels are a bit low, i set the auto timer and let it take the pic to minimize shake. you'll find that the quality of your pics can improve substantially.
sure, i wish my camera were more compact, but i was used to carrying around a fullsize nikon 35mm SLR anyways (which was heavier). for snapshots, i had a olympus stylus. but those two cameras have been untouched ever since i went digital. i ain't going back.
TR - thanks for the kind words.
cheers,
MM
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