Can i have tips on buying a digital camera- what to look for- whats good?

Check Consumer Reports. They recently did a report on different types of digital cameras in different price ranges

please clarify,how much $$$ ?

i have canon S1 IS. i love it. costs round 280 amazon
shoots vid,added w/a & tele lenses,well built

You need to decide what is important to you first. Simple point and shoot, full blown DSLR or something in between. What you can afford and what you plan to do with the pictures are also major factors.

Assuming you want decent quality, I would say the low end starts around $150. For that price you can get about 4 megapixels (don't go less than 3 unless all you plan to do is email the pics) with optical zoom (ignore digital zoom - it's essentially meaningless) and a good sensor. Step up to $400 -$500 and you get a really good point and shoot with 6 megapixels or higher, decent optical zoom and a high quality sensor and usually the option of manual control. The DSLRs (usually cameras with interchangeable lenses - SLR just means you are actually viewing what the camera lens is seeing when you look through the viewfinder and usually means a higher end camera) start in the $600 to $1000 range and climb from there. Remember, your also going to need a media card (at least 512 mb) - the ones that come with the camera will only hold a few pics. Extra lithium ion batteries are also a wise investment.

Check out and actually play with a number of cameras you are considering - do you like the features and does the camera feel well laid out to you? Shutter lag (the time from when you push the shutter button until when the picture is actually taken) is something you may want to be aware of if you are buying a lower end camera - it can sometimes mean you miss your shot. Along with that is how fast the camera can take multiple pictures (the write speed of your card is also a factor in this). If you get a higher end camera and a card with a 40 or higher write speed, those things probably won't be a big issue.

Check out dpreview.com for lots of info and ratings of different cameras.

After I got my tiny 4 MP Point&shoot digicam, all my expensive and bulky SLRs and lenses Cannon, Olympus, etc, became idle. All day long I carry the tiny digicam in my pocket, and shoot everything in sight. Unless you want to do "technical" shooting, I would recommend a reasonably priced, small digital camera - try for minimum resolution of 4 MP, and optical zoom.

visit canon.com
even a layman will gain a knowledge of what-is-what of digital cameras