Please Suggest Camera With Excellent Macro

Joined: 11 Apr 2004 Posts: 13 Location: New York City

Hi,

I'm going to purchase a new digital camera soon and hope that I can get some opinions about which cameras might best fit my main requirement.

I'm looking for a high end point-and-shoot SLR-like (prosumer/enthusiast?) camera. Besides the obvious desire to have a camera that takes very good images overall, my main requirement is that it provide stellar close-up/macro images. There are other features that I would like too, but I must begin with a camera that can take macros that are clean, crisp and as distortion-free as possible.

At this time I'm not considering a D-SLR for two reasons: 1) Expense - I would likely have to buy a separate macro lens in addition to the already more expensive camera, and 2) I don't believe I would want to carry two or three lenses around with me most, if not all of the time.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx
Larry