which DSLR camera for fine art reproduction?

help
I am an painter, not a photogragher and I need a new camera for shooting my art for reproduction into fine art prints. I know I need at least 14 megapixels, great image and color quality and something super easy to use. I pretty much use auto settings. With a $800.00 budget which camera would you recommend?
24 megapixels would be nice for larger images, is it worth the extra$$$

PS For years I have had used 8" x 10" transparecies and scanned them , but I find I get better color from a digital camera and natural light. large format trans seems to be going the way of the dodo bird.
see my art at www.lindapaul.com

What size prints?

Hi
My prints are up to 36" x 48"

I am pretty sure that I want to get a 24MP SLR, so I can do the large prints, and I am looking at both the Sony α850 DSLR and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. any preferences and advice??

Thanks in advance

Don't forget that you are going to need a quality tripod/head and a very good lens to get the most out of the 20+ MP images. - TF

Hi old clicker

Thanks for the tip on the tripod and lens. I need all the advice I can get.

My photographic skills are not much above auto level

All things considered an auto mode is very unnecessarily limiting. At least throw it in aperture priority mode, ~ f/8 ISO 100, set the drive mode to 2 second delay and then your shutter speed is unlimited. In an auto mode, it would try to balance shutter and aperture, which will produce significantly lower quality images, and would limit your shutter speed invariably causing wider f-stops, leading to softer focus, softer borders. Since you'd be shooting on a tripod, there is no need for a fast shutter, you can even use a 5 second shutter if you want, but you won't achieve that (decently anyway) with auto mode. If you do auto mode, you'll end up battling with the camera to achieve the results you want, and inevitably be forced to either have a ton of light on your canvas, or poor quality photos. Of course, manual mode would be ideal if you're up to the task, and considering its still life you have time to tinker around with it anyway. Priority modes are actually easy, if you're willing to spend $3k on camera gear, at least learn a priority mode.

Keep also in mind that the reason clicker mentions a good tripod and head is because being perfectly perpendicular to your canvas is an essential part of reproduction, you are wanting to shoot a flat surface, so you'll want the image sensor flat parallel to it, its a lot harder then it sounds and a good tripod head will make it much easier.

You'll also want a lens with very good distortion control, meaning pretty much everything below 40mm is off limits, a fixed 50mm like Sony's 50mm f/1.4 would be an excellent combination with the A850. With that lens, you'd be able to shoot at wider f-stops with still excellent results even at f/4.5-5.6

Wow sorry I'm rambling now, hope that helps.

Hi Abesol
I truly appreciate all your advice and instruction. i suppose if I can learn adode photoshop , I can learn how to operate a camera!