Help. need to buy a digital camera daffled by all the info

[bouncy]

I have been reading threads on selling on ebay and decided to give it a go, I have some birthday money and need to upgrade my old camera to a digital one, mainly to take photo's and of family etc etc. Too many MB and pixies or whatever and totally confused. I dont want to cheap and nasty one. What do I need to look out for. TIA

Your best bet would be to walk into a reputable camera shop and discuss with them what your needs are and they can run through the different features for your budget. I can thoroughly recommend Jessops as looking after their customers rather than just pressurising you into buying something too expensive which you don't really need.

On a personal level, I like the Canon Ixus for a beginner's digital camera - great for point and shoot, but lots of extra features that are easy to access once you become a little more confident. Good quality for the price too.

Basically the more megapixels the better the quality of pictures the camera is capable of taking.
For snaps you don't need many, it becomes more important if you want to blow pictures up as they lose quality with size.
However the more pixels you havw the more space each picture takes up so you will need a bigger memory card the more pixels you go for. Whatever you go for you will need a bigger memory card than the one that comes as standard with the camera.
The other important factor to picture quality (as with all cameras) is the lens. A crappy lens will take crappy pictures.

I'd second GA's advice to go into somewhere like Jessops and ask advice. They'll let you play with a few and you can get a feel for size, features ease of use etc.
Another thing to look for in a digital is a decent sized and well lit LCD. Some are very small and some very dark so you can't preview your pictures easily.

Just had a thought. There's a great book I have called How To Do Everything With Your Digital Camera - it's by far the best reference book I've found. Very approachable style, teaches you how a digital camera works and how to get the most out of it - lots of very simply tricks which are very effective. Might be worth buying it before going to look for a camera because it has a couple of chapters devoted to the usual features and what to look out for when you go shopping for a camera.

Thanks for all advice. I will certainly be taking them all on board.

message withdrawn

message withdrawn

We also have a Canon Ixus - think it is a 300. Had this one a couple of years. Really like it. It is excellent quality and very easy to use.