Spoony,
I think the current Minolta D7Hi is the most bang for the buck. If that's overkill, check out the Nikon or minolta 2.1 to 3.2 megapixel cameras.
Read the reviews at
www.dpreview.com
You'll probably wanr a program like Photoshop to edit your photos. Besides adjusting color, brightness, etc. You'll be able to resize the pixel dimensions and file sizes.