At that price whisp you should expect 5mega pixels and up, 3 Megapixels roughly equals a 35mm camera. So anything more than that is good. More megapixels more space the initial shot takes on your memory card. For example my 4 megapixel camera take almost an entire mb for one shot.
Also, make sure that since you are about to pay that much, that you get a lithum rechargeable battery with it. I'm not talking about the Double A types. I'm talking about the camera's own propertary battery built specificially for it. Why? Because you don't want the camera to continue costing you money as you continue to use it. The average camera should last you at least 3-4 years. At a 400 price point you are talking about at least a 6 megapixel camera or more even.
Also another important thing. Optical vs digital zoom. Optical zoom means the the actual lens is on the camera is actually physically zooming towards the object which helps for clearer pictures from far distances. So generally speaking the more optical the better. Digital means the camera's processor does a digital zoom, which leaves for less accurate pictures and blurry images.
Digital camera's also tend to have alot of features when it comes to alot of situations. All is affected by the current lighting of the area that you are in. I've gone thru 4 digital cameras in my life lol. The one thing i've always noticed is night pictures tend to be harder to take. Worst yet night pictures of distant objects is the worst offender. No matter what option you pick, pictures tend to come off the wrong way.
Also digital camera's can take videos. Depending on your memory card size you can literally take 30 min videos or even more.
Brands and what you pay for
Sony- You pay more for style and design more than anything else. Durability takes a hit though.
Canon- My personal favorite, The newer camera's look more stylish. But I've known to be very durable. ALso they are reasonable with prices.
Olympus- Water proof digital cameras Hotness- Price not so hot lol. Still i'd say a second place for them. They do build very nice cameras.
Panasonic- Erm Never used them, but i've heard alot of good things about them.
Christ I don't want to keep typing lol.
Ohh and yea, having a nice digital camera and all is nice. But also having a excellent printer is also important. Especially if you want to take some of the those pictures and give them out to friends and such.
Anyway i hope that helped.
Heres some examples about the lighting situations.
This is a shot with my camera now.
This is under auto with flash, in broad daylight. Why because thats you you take the sharpest picture.
This is with the same camera, But since they were far I had to do an optical and digital zoom together.
This is a prime example of what i was talking about earlier.
Distanced object night object. Difficult to take a correct image of. Notice the Plants in the front came out right though.
And this is an excellent picture under excellent lighting and no flash.
Btw those pictures are 4 megapixel camera pics. So you get the idea eh?
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