Digital cameras are fun! You can see what photograph you have taken instantly without having to wait days or weeks to finish a film or processing. The images you take can be shared and enjoyed by everyone very quickly by email or instant messaging, etc. If you don't like what you see then you can delete it and take it again. The best thing is, there are no cost involved in this action

There is a lot of fuss made about megapixels. Rest assured that most cameras have at least 3 megapixels these days and will produce more than excellent results at normal sizes such as 3x5 or 4x8. Only when you enlarge to 10x8 or more will you find the need to invest in greater megapixels. Think - when was the last time you EVER did that?

In regards to lenses, you should consider buying a camera with a lens that will "zoom" - get closer to the action, or further away. Zoom is one of the best feature in a camera. Luckily almost all compact cameras and all prosumer models have a zoom lens built in and of course you can buy your own zoom lenses if you have a digital SLR.

Most compact cameras, prosumers and many SLRs have built in flash. This is handy if you want to get that otherwise elusive shot indoors or in the dark. But don't expect quality - external flashguns will give the best results but the sheer convenience of a built in flash makes it worth the effort.

People often get confused by memory cards. Simply put, a memory card is the equivalent to film in the older film cameras. The images you take are stored on these. The main differences are that you can store many more than you would have been able to on film and that you can download them to a computer or print images out at the local store or at home and then delete all the images on the card to start all over again!

The camera you buy will usually take only one type of memory card. Other types won't fit. They are easily and cheaply available both in the shops and online. They come in different capacities (just like film) but typically a 256Mb sized card will be able to store around about 150 images taken on a 3 megapixel camera.

Digital cameras are the way to go producing fantastic results and will give years of pleasure.