Digital Camara
First decision is whether you want a PHD (push here dummy) simple point and shoot, which can be very good camera’s with surprisingly large file size but fixed lenses (again these are getting better all the time) or a digital SLR that allows you to change lenses and tend to have larger file size - like a traditional single lenses reflex.
In a PHD look for the largest optical zoom (10X) with the largest file size (minimum 5mb). Avoid being seduced by digital zoom since that is just enlarging the pixel size at a loss of image quality. The quality of the lense is also important and zeiss, lieca and nikon are still tops. Pentex, Canon, Nikon, Sony. Olympus etc are all good choices – see what you like. The Sony DSCH5B Cybershot Digital Camera is an example.
Most of the big names camara makers have very good entry level digital SLR's for between $700 - 1000 that are great camera’s with lot's of features and produce superb results. Most can use the lenses from their auto focus film SLR ancestors, which is great since that helps keep cost down on taking advantage of the changeable lenses. I have a Canon Digital Rebel xti that is 10mb file and uses all of my old EOS lenses – which is why I chose it.
Almost as important is the photo management software you use to organize and tweak your pictures. I use iPhoto which comes with mac computers and Photoshop that works with mac and Windows. The base application in Windows is very basic (lame) and usually the program included with the camara is not much better.
Just my opinions – have fun looking.
