stock photography, what to shoot with?

[pictureEVERYTHING]

Well, this will be my first post on this forum... but not my first venture into photography. I've been shooting ever since I was in highschool and I think I'm ready to try to make a little money at this. I wanted to pose this question to the pros on the board. What would be a good camera to get started in the world of stock?
I've been considering anything from the Nikon D50, although if I had it my way it'd be the 200! I even started looking at the dslr wannabes this past week. I was almost set to go pick up a Fuji S9000 until I started seeing that it might have some noise problems not suitable for stock. I also was looking at the Samsung GX-1S, as it can accept pentax k mount lenses.
A wide range of suggestions would be helpful. And I must admitt I'm on a bit of a budget. But I do understand you get what you pay for. I've been noticing that a bare minimum in stock is about 4MP. I was planning on shooting something from 6-8MP.
So if anyone has some reccomendations for me I'd really appreciate it!

 

[Big Mike]

Well you seem to be on the right track by researching. Check or ask what stock companies expect for the photos. If they sell most of their stuff for on-line use then higher mega pixels won't matter much at all. For printed images though, more mega pixels does help.

The big difference between a DSLR and *most* digital (non SLR) cameras is the size of the sensor. DSLR cameras have a much larger sensor which produces better image quality and a lot less noise, especially at high ISO.

I usually recommend something from Canon or Nikon. They are the clear leaders in this field. One big reason is the quality of lenses available.

The quality of images from the D50 should be more than adequate, same goes for the entry level DSLR from Canon, EOS Rebel XT. A quality lens will really help as well. To be fair, I'm sure other cameras will probably work as well...but I don't know much about them.