A tough question my friend. Well if you wish to go the slr ( single lens reflex ) route.
Due to my bias the Canon Eos Rebel xt ( 350D ) Body around 350 $ – ( froogle.com ) is my reccomendation or a nikon of same category

For the lense the either the canon 50mm 2.5f prime or the sigma 50 mm 2.8f around 250 $ ( shopzilla) should get you fairly close to the desired 1:1 macro. Though I would prefer something higher such as the 100mm or 105 from canon and sigma respectively.
Unfortunately the total comes out to more than 500$ for the xt & 50mm.

The 12x super zooms can also perform quite reasonably if you couple it with a tripod and zooming in along with manual focus.

Personally, I used the Sony DSC H2 to shoot “macros”. It’s threaded to mount lense adaptors and it’s competent. Of course it is not as good as using an slr with a dedicated macro lense by a long long shot.

Best of luck

SLR or DSLR with a macro lens or a zoom lens with macro capabilities along with a sturdy tripod.

Hi!

If you want some real good photography, you should consider a quality lens..
Look around at for a cheap new one!

Love Kim

SLR

There are two types of cameras u can look for in this price range..

DSLR Like Camera (Around 350$)
—————————-
Fujifilm S9600
Canon SX100
Canon G9

Entry Level DSLR Camera (Around 500$ body without lens)
————————————–…
Nikon D40
Nikon D40X
Canon 350D

If you want professional, I would advise you to get an SLR (cameras that you can change the lens). For your sort of project, you would need any SLR body and a macro lens. This does not fit your range, so you might consider a high end compact camera such as the Canon Powershot G9 or Nikon Coolpix P5100.

Look at the Canon USA and Nikon USA websites for more info. and
For pricing, check.

Hope this helps.

SLR stand for Single Lens Reflex