Melissa, I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you'd like to photograph portraits for references in drawing. I have a 35 mm SLR system which I like a great deal; it consists of two Nikon bodies, a 5005 and an N60, a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens which I almost never use, and my workhorse, a 70-210 mm zoom lens, which stays on my camera virtually all the time. I use this for taking reference photos for my portrait work and also for photographing the portraits in various stages and to keep a record of them once they're completed. I can make photocopies of my 4x6 photos as large as 11x14, and while they're not as sharp as a photographic enlargement they have a more artistic quality and they look very good framed behind glass with a mat. I also just got a Canon Powershot G2 digital camera, which I want to use to take photos of my work for printing copies via my computer, although I should graduate to an archival ink printer if I really want to get serious about that. But I don't think the Canon G2 will replace my Nikon system because of the shutter lag problem with digitals; the pause between pressing the shutter and taking the picture will probably make it too hard for me to capture the sorts of fleeting expressions that I aim for in my work.
With camera equipment it's important to go for the best quality lens you can afford. Once my camera went on the fritz during a photo session, and because I had had so much trouble connecting with this particular subject I borrowed her small camera to try to salvage the shoot. It was an automatic, lower-end Minolta or some other respected name, but the optics were poor and I couldn't work from any of the pictures I took with it. They were fuzzy and lacked depth. I think I've been spoiled by Nikon optics, having used nothing but that brand since the 60's. I couldn't believe the difference in quality, though.
Hope this helps.
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