I find with really good light and a little patience I can get decent pictures from my old Canon SX10IS pocket camera. Having a good zoom lens gives you more options but most fixed lenses let more light in so you can have more range in aperture and exposure settings. I do find that web hosting tends to take the punch out of some pictures.

Something like this blacksmith is a little more challenging and I'm sure I could have ended up with a better shot if I had a better camera, it just wasn't enough light. For a given resolution, a larger sensor will capture more light and will have less noise.