In search of: a $250 digital camera, NPC, but I would like to buy my 1st one Options

[brant]

title about covers it.
I would love to buy my first digital camera..
(so I can take car pictures)

Is there anything out there that would be decent in the 200 range?

(I'll have to justify it with the wife, that we can use it for trips and non car pictures too)

what should I look for?
-#'s of pixels?
-powers of multiplication?

thanks for humoring a computer and camera newbie.
brant

[ThinAir]

1) Yes. My decision on what kind of card I wanted was based upon wanting to use it with either Windoze or Linux. I felt that Compact Flash had the highest chance of doing that.

2) Your camera may come with Alkaline batteries in the box, but those are the last Alkaline batteries you should use in the camera. You will use them up very quickly. After that, get some rechargeable NMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) or Lithium batteries and use them over and over. Which of these that you get would be determined by whether your cameral manufacturer has some note that says only use this or don't use that.

For myself, I would not buy a camera that uses a proprietary battery instead of AAs. The cost of replacing the battery will quickly exceed the cost of the camera. I found a charger at Sam's Club that works from a/c or the power outlet in my car. It came with 4 15-minute recharge NMH batteries and was less than $30.

4) Optical zoom is always better than digital zoom (at least on paper). Used properly, I've seen demonstrations of very good results from digital zoom. The secret seems to be in framing the photo properly to begin with so that you don't manipulate its size after the fact. What level of zoom you need (3x or 10x) is probably determined by what you want to shoot. For close-ups many cameras offer a macro mode so that you can get very close. I'm still learning how to use that on my A75.