You could use a flat bed scanner if you wanted to.
Back before digital came around I use to play with my flat bed HP scanner that was connected to my computer and scanned a lot of 3D object (no body parts though). The quality wasn't bad either.
The main thing you want to look for in any camera is the ability to control the settings to change speed and fstop and be able to focus as close as you plan on getting to whatever you are taking a picture of. A lot of the cheaper point and shoots are auto everything and don't give you a lot of flexibility. They are great for what they are intended for, but not so great when you need to do long exposures because you have stopped down the fstop to increase your depth of field. There are a number of excellent cameras available that fall with in the P&S category but do have a lot of features. So what ever camera you get, make sure and go over it's features very carefully so you don't end up having just a, well, point and shoot.
Mike