What should I look 4 when buying a good digital cam 4 good quality photos? Is more pixels the only criteria?

What should I look for when buying a good digital camera? I really want good quality crisp photos with nice and bright colours! I was recently told that higher pixels are not the only criteria I should look for and things such as the quality of the pixels are also important. Please tell me what to look for when buying a camera.

dpreview.com
if you dont go DSLR, i would recommend no zoom at all. when you dont have any elements (glass) moving, images tend to be the sharpest
check out the canon elph SD20...rated the sharpest compact digital (no zoom).

Just bought a Canon PowerShot A620, pretty cool, very happy with it. It cost me a lot (around $650 Australian dollars) but I think it's worth it. 7.1 Mega Pixels. Report It

You could check out Consumer Report (which does NOT feature ads from any advertisers). That way their reporting won't be influenced by potential sponsors.

Another place you could look is www.epinions.com This site features feedback from actual consumers....both good and bad comments on lots of items.

Best of everything!

You should be able to buy a decent digital camera for less than $200. Four megapixels is a good resolution. Simplicity of controls is important to me, because I don't want to have to get the manual out when I want to do something. I have a Kodak 4 megapixel and I like it. The controls are easy to learn and remember, and Kodak is good with quality and customer service and value and ease of use. This is my 2nd Kodak camera and I'm pleased. My new one will even take videos because it has a 256 MB memory card that can hold hundreds of pictures. I bought it for $150.
You don't need to go above 4 megapixels unless you are going to print pictures larger than 8x10.

Megapixels? buy as many as you can afford, look for major
brands, their software is always better.
I think 3x to 5x OPTICAL zoom would be very desirable.
Digital zoom sucks away quality. You will pay extra for high megapixels in smaller size cameras, but you may carry a very small camera all the time. You need to think about final output size. How big are you planning to make your prints, the bigger the print size the more megapixels you want to start with. Most Pro photographers try to get the final output to 300dpi at size of final enlargment. Adding
size can be done by someone in Photoshop or other programs,
after capture, these programs are made to do such things. Then some of the quality is up to the skill level of the printer or Photoshop person. Good quality is a matter of each persons opinion.
I am a Professional and I shoot with a Nikon Digital SLR with normal interchangable lenses. 6.1 megapixels, it's a great camera, Super Quality, but, it's big and does not fit in a pocket. I can make big enlargements like 35mm film.
Then after all the money I spent, I had to learn how to use
Photoshop to make sure the quality is maintained. Good Luck
and keep asking other people's advice before you buy. Look for online reviews.

Optical Zoom is very important. Dont buy digital zoom, unless it has optical as well, and then disable the digital zoom.

Digital zoom only streches the pixels to look closer, but it has quality lose. Look for 3x or more OPTICAL zoom. And 4megapixels or more are good.

Also look for stabilizing focus fix when taking pictures while you move a lot or have trembling hands.

Take a look at http://dpreview.com/ and see what best fits your buget. They are based in England so some of the model numbers are different than what you'd find on the shelves inthe US.