Relatively inexpensive cameras that will work in many situations are the Canon Powershot S3 or S5. Both have 432 mm lenses and 6meg and 8meg images respectively. The large image formats come in handy when cropping the large image down to a 4×6 that just shows the bird. Adobe Photoshop is a must. Others in that category are the Kodak P712 and Kodak Z610.

Now among the more expensive cameras but also much more versitile are the Canon Digital Rebel but you will have to buy the lense separately. Still reasonably priced. The Canon 30D and Canon 40D. Now we are beginning to talk big bucks. A decent image stabilized lense for one of these will cost about $500 for a 70-300mm image stabilized Canon lense. A Canon 100-400mm image stabilized lense about $1300.

Binoculars:

Among the best are the Swarovski 8.5×44 at about $1900 and the Nikon LXL 8×42 Premiere at about $1300.

Most birders prefer 8 power for the wider field of view but many do use 10 power. If you do not wish for the "best" there are plenty of good binoculars that are less expensive. You receive about 10% better performance for a doubling of price. And many times the better performance is not too noticable in most situations.

Exceptionally good pairs of binoculars for the price are Bushnell Legend 8×42 at $250, Eagle Optics Ranger 8×42 at $300, Swift Audubon 8.5×44 Porro at $349, Votex Razor 8×42 at $699 (these are generally rated very highly by those who have them)