I'm not really familiar with how good point & shoots can do for this application, especially if you're talking about for a catalog. If they'd do a good job, great. You'd save money and have the size camera you'd want for later. Looking ahead to later, I'm spoiled by what a DSLR can do, so I sold my two point & shoots so I can get a 35mm rangefinder.
I'd suggest signing up at fredmiranda.com and posing your questions on
this forum after looking around at the last few pages of threads. I find the members there very knowledgeable.
Processing RAW is easy, but you'll probably need either a plug-in for Photoshop or some stand-alone software. With RAW you can go back and change parameters that are too late for JPEGs, like white balance, and do a better job recovering lost detail.
You can get a good feel for used gear pricing at
www.keh.com and they have a ton of stuff in stock and are very reputable. Search under digital and 35mm for lenses...