Hey norad45!

Check out dpreview.com .

A few things I learned about Digital cameras...

Stick to companies who make cameras (e.g., Cannon, Nikon, etc.) and stay away from companies who build cameras as an addition to their primary products (e.g., Kodak, HP, etc.).

Buy a camera that uses standard batteries. This is especially important if you travel. It's easy to pick up a spare set of AA's or carry 10 spares in your pack, but it's expensive to buy a spare proprietary. Waiting for them to recharge can be maddening if you're missing some photo opps. What if you lose your charger cord? You can still use rechargeable standard batteries for daily use. It's just nice to have convienence and options.

Buy memory cards separate. You can find them ridiculously cheap (compared to retail camera shops) on-line. And you don't have to dig long or buy from tiny, obscure shops. The big box on-line outlets run deals all the time.

This one, I learned the hard way. When buying memory, buy multiple cards in smaller sizes rather than one massive (2G and larger) card. Cards can be damaged, or just develop a random "card error" causing image loss. I'd rather lose part of my trip than the entire thing. Not to say card errors happen often, but they can. It happened to me. I now carry 3 512MB cards, shoot on the highest quality, and never delete a photo until I upload it to my laptop. It may be a slight hassle to carry multiple cards, but I'd rather play safe. It only takes a couple seconds to swap out cards in most cameras. To me, it's worth the peace of mind.

Not all cards are created equal. Buy the best quality cards you can afford. Expensive, name brand cards write much faster. The camera can only write so fast. This is the lag time you experience with most point-and-shoot cameras (higher end have less lag). It may drive you crazy at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly. You don't want to compound the lag time using a slow card if you can avoid it.

Digital cameras are a blast. Instant gratification, print only what you want, mess with your images with one of the many photo editing software applications, and just delete that family photo where Aunt Margo has one eye shut and her tongue hanging out.

Have fun and good luck.