I'd say any camera at about 3 megapixels will be fine for what you're doing. You'll need a tripod. I find it very hard to hold my hand steady enough to take clear close-up pictures with my digital camera.
Optical zoom lenses are better than the digital zoom. Try typing in "Digital Camera Review" in google and see what turns up. That should be good for a number of days of casual research.
Here's just one example. I have the Canon S50 which is a 5 MP camera. Probably overkill for my needs but the camera is really nice.