First, you need to know what you want to do with the camera. The types of photographs you wish to obtain have a lot to do with the type of camera and features you will need. Second, be aware of your own learning curve. If you end up with a super charged camera and you have only one day to learn how to work it, you may end up a little disappointed. Camera specs talk about pixels and megapixels, batteries, lenses, special effects, zooming, and ISO. This may be Greek to some beginners. Let's take a look at what some of this means.

Resolution of a photograph determines how sharp and clear a photo may be and consists of dots (pixels). The larger photographs you will wish to have the higher resolution and larger pixel size. Megapixels are the largest sized pixels. So, 3.1 megapixels are good for small images for the Internet, for instance while for large wall art, 5.0 megapixels is best.

Scene mode is one of the automatic settings that you can find on some digital camera models. This can offer ease-of-use to allow you to photograph such scenes as fireworks, sports, portraits and day or night landscapes. Beginners don't need to take a lot of time to learn the “how-tos” of composition and lighting if you use this automation.

To allow first timers to shoot accurately people with minimal “errors', you can find face or smile detection options. With face detection, the camera will automatically focus for you on the faces for clear portraits. The smile detection will not allow the photo to be taken until your subjects are smiling.

Sometimes you may wish to be closer or further away from your subject. Digital and optical zoom is available. Digital zoom is done in-camera, without the lens doing the work and optical zoom has the lens doing the work. So, small subjects and far away matter can be photographed with ease. Zooms come in 3x, 5x and higher. Meaning that you standard 35mm camera can zoom to 105mm, 175mm and higher.

Rechargeable batteries are good to have, although if you are going to travel abroad standard “throw away” batteries may be best. That way you needn't deal with different voltage power. A general rule of thumb on pricing, although not written in stone, is that the less expensive camera has the least amount of effects and smallest picture sizes. The opposite could be true regarding more expensive cameras.

Choosing a digital camera for beginners comes down to: how much do you want to do with it? Simple small and basic cameras are great for taking a picture here and there for upload to your computer and small prints. More exotic features in larger cameras can help the casual hobbyist who wishes to photograph places, people, and events of importance for later larger prints. Just research your needs, and you won't be intimidated when you get to the store with the salesmen. It's not as difficult as it may seem.