I'll go against the grain here and say that not everyone or every shot requires a digital SLR. It all depends.
Manufacturers usually don't provide a decent lens for CU photography with their standard camera/lens kits, so you'll have to dig deeper for the better glass; and digital glass can get expensive. Budget about $1000 or more for a camera/lens combo. The better point-and-shoot camera can be placed perilously close to a CU subject with pretty good results. One can obtain pretty clean pics with a tripod and enough light.
$250 Olympus C4000 P&S, 4Mp, handheld, daylight (not really fair at undemanding web resolution)
That said, the Nikon D50 should be cheaper now that the D80 is coming out.
Sherwood
Oly E330
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