This is one of the hardest questions to answer. The trouble is there are so many factors involved. You can get a DSLR and never use 75% of its features. You can get a really good compact and find it has as much on offer as a DSLR but no matter what, it will not give like for like quality of a DSLR.
I currently use a Cannon G10 which is a high end compact, now at the G12 I believe. However, getting the best out of it is hard work until or unless you fully understand what the functions actually do. When I shoot pictures of builds in progress I set it at AP (Aperture Priority) and, because the actual sensor in a compact is smaller than in a DSLR, I know that if I set it at F8, I will get all the depth of field (the distance from front to back of acceptable focus). To ensure good quality images I leave the 'Speed', the ISO setting at its lowest which is 80 ISO. This gives me a shutter speed of 1 second, far too slow to hand hold but in fact, I do. I am that used to handling the camera that I can with little support get the pictures sharp enough. This camera has a 14.1 mega pixel sensor which is the cameras biggest fault. People think that the more pixels the sensor has, the better it is.
However, on a compact camera with a small sensor, all those pixels crammed into such a small space are inherently 'noisy' which gives a grainy looking picture. Grain was cool on film but the mush grain that a digital camera gives is just not good.
Thankfully, technology is making the noise levels less and less each day. Some high end DSLRs set at 1600 ISO show less noise than my Canon at 100 ISO. Trouble is, it costs money and unless you are professional and passing the cost on to your clients, it just is not worth it. My DSLR is a very basic and getting on a bit Nikon with a whopping 6 megapixels maximum and a minimum ISO of 200. Theoretically this is a recipe for disaster, high ISO and low MP with old technology should equal noisy soft pictures. However, nothing could be further from the truth. I don't use the Nikon very often but every time I do, I am aware of the pure quality of the image.
For my finished pictures, I put the model in a light tent whit an umbrella flash bouncing down onto it. This can easily be replaced by desk lamps but I have the flash setup and I like the fact that I can handhold the camera as the flash controls the exposure speed so no chance of getting camera blur. If I was using ordinary lamps, I would expect shutter speed of more than 1 second so I would have to use a tripod.
The moral of the above is do not get suckered in to the megapixel war, you don't need tons of them. On a compact or bridge camera, anything between 6 and 10 is by far enough so long as the quality of the camera and its optics are good enough. Having said that, you may struggle to get one that low now. By the way, a bridge camera is a compact that looks like a DSLR but does not, in the main, have interchangeable lenses. What they do generally have even with interchangeable lenses is an electronic viewfinder. This is similar to a tiny TV in the eyepiece which is fine but can make accurate manual focusing harder. Modern autofocus tends to make this not a problem for most people.
A basic DSLR is going to be around £399 and for what you want, not necessary. You can expect to pay around the same for a high end compact or bridge camera. Thankfully there are loads in between and realistically you need to look at what is available in your budget. Go to PC world or a decent camera shop and have a look at what is on offer.
Look for something that will at least allow you to set Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority. Also check that there is some manual control over the speeds and apertures rather than just the so called Scene settings. Also check that there is a reasonable optical zoom, do not use digital zoom it is simply rubbish. Also check that you can switch off the flash as it is the last thing you want when taking pictures of kits. Nearly all cameras have a close up mode, usually set by selecting a flower icon. Some call this macro but true macro is when the size of the image on the sensor is 1:1 with the actual object, rarely achieved on a modern compact no matter what they call it. Thankfully, you rarely need to get that close so the correctly labeled 'close up' is more than enough.
Nearly everyone on here uses a camera so have a look around and when you see pictures that look the way you want them, ask what camera is being used. It may be that some will be over budget but not all of them. Whatever you fancy, don't rush it. It is a lot of money to buy something that doesn't do what you want. If you settle on one, ask around if anyone has one and what they think. You can get your best prices online but still have a look and feel of the camera in a shop if you can.
Good names to look at are Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic (Lumix) Olympus, Kodak, Pentax and there are others. If you see one with a name like Nippon, ask around, look online for review. Some of these amazing will do anything cameras are really only fit for putting inside a Christmas cracker
