www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Been looking round for the best rated cameras and found these:

Nikon D50
Nikon D70
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Canon EOS 20D
Canon EOS 350D Digital
Nikon D70s
Cybershot
Canon Powershot S2 IS
Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Nikon D200

Best closup cameras:

Canon PowerShot S2IS

One of the best close-up cameras ever made is the discontinued Olympus C5050Z

Nikon Coolpixe models.

The Canon S2 isn't the best close up camera. It's a nice compact bridge camera but it won't take as good close ups as a DSLR with macro lens. But the main fault with the S2, and the S3 which I have, is that the super macro mode is set at the extreme wide angle end of the zoom. This means you have to get ridiculously close for decent image sizes, far closer than most butterflies will tolerate given that they can be spooked by a lens autofocus. The basic macro mode is inferior to normal mode operating at closest focus at maximum telephoto.

It's not all bad though. At maximum telephoto, the closest normal focusing distance is about 1 meter and is good enough for larger butterflies with a little cropping. Add the Canon 500D close up lens and you have a focussing range from 12"-20" with a 35mm long subject able to fill the frame at 12". The camera is used at the telephoto end.

Note the Canon 20D has been superceded twice now and they're on the 40D. As an allround photorapher I'd recomend it but it might be overkill for just butterflies.

Canon 40D?

The list of DSLRs left out Pentax 10D (or was it D10?), which has a pretty good set of features.

As already mentioned, the best P&S is one with long zoom and filter threads for close-up lens.