What Should I Look For When Buying A Digital Camera?

Lots of megapixels doesn't insure high quality photos. Lens quality has a lot to do with it. Between 4 and 6 megapixels is sufficent for almost all tasks. Many cameras have 3X, and 4X optical zoom. If you want lots more zoom it will cost. Battery life could come into play when buying a camera; and ditto an image stabilizer. You might consider a camera that has manual controls as opposed to everything automatic. If you're coming from 35mm photography and worked with a SLR; then good chance you'll want complete control. Therefore consider a DSLR....Digital Single Lens Reflex camera. I don't own a DSLR. My camera is a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2. A little of both worlds in that it has a very good lens and lots of zoom. I hoped I helped a little; I know many different answers can be confusing. Lastly buy a memory card that holds lots of memory.

a big memory and display!

look for a cam with good storage memory, anything above 3.0 Mega Pixel is good. Also, they are selling them with MP3 players now.

Higher optical zoom vs digital zoom. Memory capacity and ability to add more.

The quality/brand of the camera.. the megapixles, how far it zooms in and out..what kind of memory card it takes..ect. Canon is a great brand for cameras, just to let u know.

-At least 3 Megpixels, but i would go with 4 just to be safe.
-I would go with a digital zoom

you look for sumthing light weight and something above 5.0 MegaPixels, and some with good image compression which means how much space each photo will take up on your memory card, also zoom is sumthing to look for depending on what type of photos u wanna take and how far distance

the pixels!. my huband purchased one with 8 pixels about 400.00
the pic are amazing its a HP photosmart r927 mega pixels 8.2
however the printer does not come with this. he bought hp printer separate. the camera has 3 inch lcd screen comes with the hardware design gallery , has red eye removal(auto in camera) he bought this at conns

pixels-I just got a Kodak Easy Share C875, and it is awesome.

If all you are looking for is a P&S (Point and Shoot) the governing factor is probably the amount you are going to spend. Kodak owns this market, so why fight city hall.

If you are in the market for something more, the biggest factor that will impact your results is the lens system. Since most DSLR (digital SLR) cameras are all in the high end of MegaPixels, they are all equally competent. But it's the lens systems that make the biggest difference.

Consider that a 5x zoom lens on a P&S camera is about 1-1.5" long. A similar lens for a DSLR is in the range of 6-12" long. Which one is going to take a better picture?

There are also other factors to consider on the lens issue such as lens flare, dispersion, clarity, etc. Canon has 3 lines of lenses for its DSLR line up depending on your needs and your pocketbook.

So if you're buying a P&S, buy what fits your hand and your budget. Looking at a DSLR requires a good consideration of the lens system that you are going to be using along with the body of the camera.