With so many digital cameras being introduced -- almost daily, it seems -- the purchase of a digital camera can seem like a daunting task to someone with little photographic experience.  If you are interested in taking pictures only on occasions, you probably should consider a relatively low cost "point and shoot" camera.  The cost of electronics combined with the current recession has resulted in dramatic increases in features along with sharp decreases in price.  The top camera brands of Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus, Sony along with major electronics companies such as Panasonic all make and market good quality "point and shoot" digital cameras.  It it possible to purchase a new digital camera today for less than $100.  Adding another $50 to $100 gives you a lot more features, however.  For example, most companies emphasize the "digital zoom" ratio of their camera.  THIS IS A TOTALLY MEANINGLESS FEATURE AS ALL IT MEANS IS THAT YOU ARE CAPTURING LESS PIXELS per IMAGE!  In contrast, optical zoom is important with 3X or 4X being typical.  This makes it possible to zoom in on a subject while still recording the 4 or 5 megapixel image (whatever the camera is rated). 

In contrast to the digital SLR cameras or the long zoom cameras, the price has become so low that it would be foolish to buy a used or refurbished digital "point and shoot" camera.

Very few of these snapshot digital cameras have an have an optical viewfinder anymore.  Instead, these cameras have a 2 1/2 to 3 inch LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) viewfinder.  You see people holding their cameras at arm's length to view and take the picture as the norm.  The only problem with this is that:

1) It is difficult to see the viewfinder in bright sun

2) In poor or little light, you cannot see anything and

3) By holding the camera away from you, it is hard to hold it steady and thus a number of shots -- especially in low light -- are often blurred. The slightly better P&S models now have an anti-shake or vibration free setting but you have to make sure the exposure dial is set on one of these settings.

There are an increasing number of cell phones which have a built in camera -- up to 2 megapixels.  While these are very simple digital cameras, it is likely that you will always have it with you.

One result of digital picture taking is that there are far fewer prints made than with film (which was the only way you could see the final result).  Of course a big advantage of taking pictures with a digital camera is that you can instantly see what you have taken.  If you don't like it, you can oftern take it again.  It is important to download the images to a computer using the USB cable that came with the camera or a card reader.  If you do not do this (using one of the many versions of software that come with the camera), you will lose the pictures.  Storing them on the flash memory card that comes with the camera is OK for a while but you will need a lot of these cards (which can be formatted in the camera) or do this in an organized way.

There is a lot of other aspects to digital photography but I have tried to highlight some of the key ones for the regular snapshooter.