Can a good photographer use any old camera and still come out with...

An artist is only as good as the tools he utilizes..

Any artist can produce brilliance from any object but in a way he is limited by the limitations of that object.

So a good photographer can work wonders with any old camera, but when he is provided with a finer instrument he can take that wonder to another level.

I owned an Olympus C700UZ and got some great photos. If you are willing to search you might find a DSLR Canon Rebel Kit for under $500. I have seen some refurbished cameras for under $500 with a year warranty. Another good camera for under $500 is the Canon S5 an 8 MP camera with a 12X optical zoom. I have used this camera and it is a very good camera. Not quite as good as my DSLR Canon Rebel. I have heard that Kodak has a good line of cameras with long zooms. The other one is the Canon G9 but that might be more than $500.

The other idea is to purchased a new but older model. A Canon Rebel 6mp with most of the features you need. Good Luck

well, if you have the scene, that's like half of the image.:) Now, 4mpx is rather small. You could get a better camera (search on dpreview, they have the best camera database there) or not, but i do recommend something far more useful... a tripod. It will change your photos COMPLETELLY! There is no comparisson between the use of a tripod and the hand-held camera. Especially when light is scarce. Don't crank up the ISO (that will only lower the quality of your images), instead, use a tripod. I have a fujifilm finepix s5700, and i NEVER go with the ISO above 64 (which is the minimum ISO for this camera). Why? because i rather have somewhat darker images (which i can edit in PS), than to have images with noise (which, let's face it, can't be removed without compromissing the picture quality). When you can't use a tripod, well, use a flash. That is, if you can get close to the subject. DON'T EVER use flash for landscape photography. It doesn't work. (period)
When you want to take a landscape shot and can't use the tripod (well, try and try to use it), crank the ISO, but at the lower limit of acceptable image quality (this differs from camera to camera).

Goodluck!

Yes.

It just depends on how large you want the final image to be? 2mp will work fine up to 5x7 print if you shoot in the highest quality mode, or more than 1024x728 on screen.

The drop in quality usually comes from the same things that applied to film. Light, composition, exposure and movement (camera or subject).

BTW, 4MP is close to the quality of 400 ISO film in 35mm format. If you go back and look at sports illustrated from the '60's and '70's that's the quality you have available.

The Olympus C730UZ that I use most (4MP) I got from eBay. I won the auction at about $25. Shop carefully and I bet you can get an lot for your $500.

Really I'd tell you to get a good tripod, learn to use the self timer (instead of a cable release). Does your camera have a full manual mode?

Yes,
The camera is not the only factor.
skill involves the use of all that yo have,

the space, the lighting, the subject AND the camera.

Man the world has gone craaaaaaaazy, I have a minolta 35mm maxxum along with
a 70---300 zoom lens and I wouldn't part with it. but I still get my film developed at walmart.
Use 800 speed film and it will stop the white lines on the road at 70 mph.
taken thru the windshield. or side window.
reach waaaaaaaay out there with the zooooooom.

I'd say that you could.

When digital cameras first came out, I won a Nikon CoolPix 800 in a photo contest. It's 2MP and was 2X zoom (only count optical, digital zoom just makes the photos look bad).

I had tons of photos that were great. I could print them at 4x6 or 5x7s and they'd display nicely and looked better than a lot of pictures from film cameras. The problem was, since it was a 2 megapixel camera I really couldn't print nice 8x10s (although, I did do some anyway because you couldn't tell from a distance).

The thing to remember though, is that smaller images quite often are going to look better. Slight blurriness in a 4MP image might never be seen if you reduce the size to a 2MP image. I noticed when I switched from my 2MP camera to an 8MP prosumer camera (all the features of an SLR except that you can't change the lens, you might want to look into something like that as well, I had the Nikon CoolPix 8700), but I ended up with more blurry photos in 8MP... not because I became a worse photographer, but because in low lighting holding the camera with my hands, the photos were nice enough small, but shook slightly so that full size they were a bit blurry. So before you determine that your 4MP camera isn't as good, compare the images at equal sizes.

There are some DSLRs out there for under $500. You could also go with a used one and then you could probably get something nicer.

It's not the camera that makes the picture, it's the photographer! However, a good camera can add a lot more creative flexibility. There are some good entry-level DSLRs that you could buy used for under $500. I would check websites like Craigslist or eBay. You can even check on photography forums for photographers selling their used equipment.

I think that you have to have both. A good camera and talent. Otherwise your photography just won't turn out the way you want it to. I just purchased a new camera that I absolutely love. I needed it for my jewelry business. It isn't a DLSR but for $250 it's amazing. It's a Kodak Easyshare Z712 IS. You can check out some of the pics I've taken with it at http://ridetheworldover.blogspot.com. . That's my motorcycle adventures blog. It sounds like we have a lot in common:-) Where are you planning on going this year? Hubby and I are planning on heading to Deal's Gap in NC, up to CT to see my best friend, Savannah, GA and down the coast, and over to Hunting Island, SC. I can't wait!! We just bought a new Yamaha V-Star 1300. It rides soooo good. Anyway, back on the subject of the camera. If you have up to $500 to spend, I would check out eBay. You can usually get some really good deals on SLR and DSLR there. Good luck!!

I once thought that an expensive DLSR would help me to capture better pictures. How wrong I was! A good photographer is a creative person. Every picture he captures will need to go through some kind of retouching.
No matter how good the tool is, the person who who uses it must be better. We are all worth much more than the cameras in the world because we can see beauty in everything!