Well, bein' an avid photographer for over 20 years, I think I can shed some light on this topic. I personally am a Canon man. I have used Canon cameras since 1970 and have yet ever had one fail me. Canon is a major leader in the world of photography with many years of experience. I recommend a digital camera with 3 mega-pixels or more to shoot good quality photographs. If you can afford a camera that has 5 mega-pixels or more, it's a much better camera & will give you excellent photographs.
I have a Canon EOS Rebel 35mm that I use all the time. This is an excellent camera & has a minumum of 6.3 mega-pixels. I have a lens that has a range of 24mm - 300mm which will pretty much photograph any thing you want to shoot. For much of CAS shooting though, the speed capability of the camera is much more important than the number of mega-pixels the camera has. Mega-pixels really only has to do with the clarity of your pictures & is real important in the event that you wish to do a lot of enlargments of your photos. The more mega-pixels you have, the larger & clearer the photograph can be printed.
Unless you are looking to be a professional photographer, there are several digital cameras out there that are moderately priced. Canon makes a smaller digital camera that has 3.2 mega-pixels & it's called the Canon S1 IS. This is a great smaller camera but looks very much like a 35mm format camera & has a fixed power zoom lens. There are optional lens attachments for this camera that can be purchased. I also have one of these cameras that I carry at all times. There has never been a case where this camera was not capable of taking the shot I needed. The camera has a MSRP of $499. If you shop around, you can find a better price then that.
The Canon EOS Rebel 35mm camera with the 24mm - 300mm lens & power battery grip (two batteries for longer shooting time) will run in the neighborhood of $1,500. Yes, there are many other brands out there such as Nikon, Kodak, etc... but for my money, Canon is the only way to go. I hope I have shed a little more light on this topic & good shootin' out there!