Buying a Digital Camera

Most people only actually NEED a basic digital camera - a sort of point and shoot model is just fine. Look for something with a file size of around 4 or 5 Megapixels (Mb) and that will produce perfectly good photos of similar quality to regular film cameras. The price will certainly be under $100 and you'll have lots to choose from.
Lately,phones are increasingly supplied with good built-in cameras and one of these is well worth considering for personal use.
There are 2 kinds of viewfinders on basic camera - an eyepiece (like a standard 35mm camera) and the viewing screen at the back. I personally find the viewing screen models a little clumsy to use and they really run through batteries fast ! The quality of the viewing screens can be awful and impossible to use in sunlight as the screen cannot be seen.
Be quite sure you get all the cables and software with any camera you buy or you'll be stuck.
This is particularly true of grey import cameras which often have only the body and no cables or software.
A good choice is a single lens reflex digital camera with a zoom lens with a macro ability.This will cover 90% of most people's needs. You can get a good digital slr for under $300
A good investment is a Card Reader - this just plugs into your USB port on your computer and the speed of transferring your photos to your hard drive is about 5 times faster (at least) - at around $10 it's a good buy.
Cards fill up really quickly with photos and you need to change batteries about every 400/500 photos.
rechargeable batteries and a fast charger are a must or you'll be shelling out for new battereies every week.
I advise you to buy several memory cards so as not to run out of pictures. The huge temptation with digital cameras is to take lots of similar pictures (everyone does it !) and then your cards get full.
The other simple solution is to go to a local internet shop and they will usually burn a cd from your memory card for around $5.
You'll also need an external flashgun as the tiny flashguns built into cameras really aren't strong enough to photograph anything more than 5 or 6 feet away ! I have seen many people photographing buildings or fireworks displays at night and all they suceeded in doing was running down their camera batteries. The power of an in camera flash is minute.