An Answer from Thomas Zaleske

Marta Lizza Hi Thomas, Thank You for the info. So far I've read about Cannon and Nikon, which are highly reccommended for the dental industry, but I will look certainly look into the Olympus. Personal experience is what I'm most interested here so Thank You! Some of the terminology you used is now familiar thanks to Quintessence Publishing. They have some great books but "tenting, flourescent photo floods...See more and back drops" is all new to me....great of you to responded!

Alexander Niessen, CDT Kodak gives nice true red colors. Unfortunately you only can get them used now.
Canon and Nikon give a little bit of a blueish Gum reproduction. But this is only if you are supper picky.

Marta Lizza Thank You Alexander, I will look into that. So far I am leaning toward Thomas's reccommendation.....the olympus E series looks good, although not inexpenxive!

Patrick Eschenfelder . . .the Nikon L-18 is what i have used for a number of years . . .it is very versatile and compact enough , that i carry it in a pouch on my hip . . .emergency shots ! Thanks ! peace. . .Patrick!

Thomas Zaleske Lizza-Im willing to sell my 5 yo E300 with standard lens, 2 batteries and charger if your interested. Its the camera that I used for the shots you see here on the site. Its never been used outside the lab and has been mounted on a monopod for 4 years. I just purchased an E620 so Im looking to let this one go. You wont be able to use the standard lens and will need to purchase a Zuiko 50mm macrolens for tabltop shots.

Marta Lizza Thomas, Thank you for your offer. It is much appreciated. The more I look into photography the more I realize there is so much to learn. It seems the best thing would be to take some photography classes using my existing camera because I realize it's not necessarily the camera but my lask of skills, an improper lens and flash system. It would be a bit premature to make a decision at this point but...See more thanks again...that was thoughtful of you.

Thomas Zaleske no problem, your smart to get a baseline of knowledge down on photography. It is indeed the knowledge and not just the tools one needs to reach potential. Best of luck in your endeavor..

Marta Lizza hey thanks Thomas!

Michael Cohn I'm not a pro, but I've sold some of my travel photos on flickr. My edits were done free on flickr's fantastic old Picnik cloud software, but they got rid of that excellent system and now have the mediocre Aviary cloud edit system. But, it's good enough for cleaning things up if you don't have anything decent on your computer and you don't need photoshop. it's a good place to start, flickr accounts...See more are free for the first 200 photos and you can make individual photos public or private so your works in progress can be displayed and shared when you're ready. Editing can often compensate for a lesser camera and even rescue what looks like a dead on arrival photo. As for cameras themselves, I can't comment because I specialize in landscapes, not products or closeups.

Paul Jackson Software wise people over look my favorite http://www.gimp.org/, it's open source so it's free, there are plenty of free tutorials and documentation. What you learn in GIMP will directly apply to Photoshop and GIMP has more features than Photoshop Esentials. GIMP's user interface rubs Photoshop users the wrong way, but it really shines on a computer with 2 monitors.

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

http://www.gimp.org/