What are the key things to look for when buying a digital camera?

my budget is 200 dollars

It should have all of the following....
this is the camera for you!

The best camera for under $200 is the Canon A550

* 7.1 Megapixel
*4X Optical Zoom
* Very good photo quality, noise levels low through ISO 400 (in good light)
* Well built for the price
* Very good performance
* LCD visible in low light
* Some manual controls
* AF-assist lamp, good low light focusing
* Good movie and continuous shooting modes
* Impressive software bundle
* Uses AA batteries; great battery life
* USB 2.0 High Speed support

Thanks for the 10 points.
You'll enjoy this camera.
I have the A510 an earlier model. Best camera I ever owned! Report It

See this site ... it has all the reviews you need

first only go to best buy or circut city, walmart might be ok but lok for ur price then depending on wat ur going to use it for look for that if ur going to nature stuff look for good zoom, the key thing though is megapixle they r very imporant, and also the brand sony or camcon, or any other very big brands

hope that helped

my suggestion
go to yahoo shopping
digital cameras
digital camera GUIDE
be sure to check titles on the left side
the guide should answer your questions

Things to look for,

First of all, don't go looking for highest MP. Because for regular day to day pictures, cameras with about 5-6 MP are great. Actually in normal day to day pictures, cameras with 5-6 MP have better picture qualities than cameras with 7 MP. If you don't believe me, read current Consumer Digest issue.

Look for size, how big camera you want, becuase higher the Optical Zoom, camera will be bigger. So depending on use, go for optical zoom. Optical Zoom around 4-5 should be good enough.

With your budget, you should be able to get decent camera that can take quality pictures.

Well to start of you need a camera that suits you so you may be into SLR photography or just ordanry photo taking so if i were you i would atleast buy a camera with 5 megapixles any less and you prints may become blured when printed. you also need an lcd viewer, get one that is atleast 1.5inches but be very caerful because ob sunny/bright days you wont be able to see you view finder (screen) so try and get one with a window too (thing you look through when taking a photograph). also you will need a good zoom, this anables you to close in on a supject a long distance away. try and get one with a good zoom. zoom is measured in numbers eg 5x zoom, 2x zoom, the higher the number before the x the better as that will allow you to zoom in closer. also bare in mind the colour of your camera, it sounds stupid i know but if you take your camera out on a sunny summers day and you have a black camera you may burn your hands (dont worry about this too much) Also some cameras have a feature which allows them to take short movies (2-20 minutes) and this can come in very handy too. all cameras come with flash so don't worry about that. Also don't get a camera that takes normal AAA battries, buy one that uses camera battry(s) buy a spare battry as there is nothing worse than your camera closing down when you can see a fantasic photograph. make sure the camera is light as you dont want to do your back in. take your camera where ever you go as you don't know what you may see or what may happen. buy a camera that is a well respected make such as Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony, Olympas and possibly even Fuji.
hope this helps !!!
but always remember to have fun with your camera. !!!!
good luck.