Originally Posted by
Thalassa
If money is really not important and you want something compact and quiet, do consider the Leica M8.2 with a Leica 135 mm lens.
Very, very, very expensive, but certainly much better quality than the P&S's with dinky little sensors.
You could get a top-of-the line DSLR for that money, but it would not be a compact...
Cheers,
T.
Wouldn't do anyone any good, if they don't know how to expose and RAW develop properly though.
I'd suggest a Sigma or Ricoh GR-D II with tele adapter instead, otherwise as mentioned, a flash won't do any good from such a distance (oh the horror of on-camera flash). If you want to take it another step, try off camera, remote-triggered flash @ strobist.com. Join the flickr group and post questions, and find out more information.