An important point: No current consumer-level digital camera that costs under $3,000 will equal 35mm film for absolute image quality! The structure of film is well beyond 3 or 4 megapixels (MP), and film has grain, which softens the edges, presenting a more natural picture to your eyes. Additionally, film cameras can be purchased at a very reasonable cost with interchangeable lenses, which greatly increase the flexibility of the camera use. Yes, you can fake a telephoto lens in the camera, but that kills your resolution. (I will get into that below.)

You can scan a photo, but that will also reduce the resolution and ultimate image quality. When you get your film developed and placed on a CD by the camera store, they actually scan the film (with a very good film scanner) and save the file to a disk.

Let's get down to the actual items to consider when buying a camera. These items are in the order of importance I give them. Not all experts agree.

Using a loose analogy to relate it to your computer screen's resolution, VGA resolution is 640x480, which means 640 dots (pixels) across by 480 down, or .3 million pixels making up the screen image. A digital camera with this same resolution would have .3 million image sensors, each representing a pixel, or .3 megapixels.

Cameras in the mid-price range ($150-300) now have 1MP or 2MP. In the $400-$1,000 price range you will get 3MP or 4MP. This directly impacts the size of a picture you can print, because more pixels translate into a larger picture that still looks good. The camera has captured more detail and doesn't have to guess at or interpolate the missing dots, or expand the existing ones, causing a blotchy print.

I have seen two kind of sensors: a charge-coupled device (CCD), which is usually found in high-quality cameras, and a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS), which is more common in the low-cost, entry level cameras. Most of the reviews I have seen favor CCD chips.

What resolution do you need? That depends on how you will be using the final output. Yes, more is always better, but as a rule of thumb related to final use:

The above listing is the consensus of several sources, but was plagiarized from the April 2001 issue of PC Photo, an excellent magazine for anyone starting out with digital photography. PC Photo generally used the more conservative smaller sizes.

One last point on resolution: Many people will want to eventually crop their pictures for a better composition. When you crop it down, you effectively throw out the resolution in the area you delete. A 3MP image could quickly reduce to 1MP with cropping, so if you like to work on your images and make relatively large prints, start with and shoot at the highest resolution you can afford.

The stated zoom range is a bit more complex. You can have optical zoom and digital zoom. Optical zoom uses the actual optics of the lens to magnify or zoom in on the image. There is no loss of resolution or quality, but it is more expensive to manufacture. Digital zoom takes the original image from the center part (how much depends on the degree of magnification) of the sensor and uses the camera's internal computer to interpolate, or guess at, the "missing" pixels between the real ones. It is like cropping the picture and then stretching the image back up and filling in the blank spaces. Image quality is degraded, and the greater the magnification, the more you lose. A 3MP sensor might actually be using only 1MP at the center and "filling in" the other 2MP.

Don't get me wrong, I have seen cameras guess very well and produce good quality images at high digital zoom magnifications, but optical is always better than digital. The most common range I have seen in optical zooms is 3X, or three times magnification.

Also, be aware that the sensor is not the same size as a piece of 35mm film, so when you see the focal length stated in mm like 38-115mm (3X), this is actually more of a telephoto angle lens than you would get in a 3mm camera. PC Photo Magazine lists the conversion at approximately 5X. My Olympus camera has a lens of 5.4mm-16.2mm which they state is equivalent to 35mm-105mm on a 35mm camera. For those not familiar with 35mm cameras, this equals slightly wide angle to short (portrait) telephoto.

Another disadvantage is that LCDs consume a lot of battery power. You can shoot all day on one set of batteries with an optical viewfinder, but you had better have extras if you use an LCD. I would not purchase a camera without an optical viewfinder. I will admit an LCD is more accurate in framing the subject, especially close-ups, unless your optical viewfinder is "through the lens," something generally found only on top-of-the-line digital cameras.

If I am so partial to an optical viewfinder, you might ask, why do I want a digital camera to have an LCD panel? Because it is invaluable for previewing your pictures, to make sure you really got a good shot. If it didn't turn out, you know it instantly and can reshoot it. The bad picture is simply deleted, making room for another shot with no waste of film. It is also great to be able to show off your pictures while still at an event and to see the reaction. One neat feature I saw on a Sony camera was an LCD panel which swiveled, so you could still see it if you put the camera over your head, or were using the self-timer to take your own picture.

Most better ($250+) digital cameras have auto-focus lenses. This will give you far better, sharper images. An added feature is a focus lock. This feature allows you to lock the focus on the main subject and then re-frame the picture to a more pleasing composition. When you get up to the professional level ($2,000+) cameras, you can even get optional full manual focus for really creative effects.

A better solution is removable memory cards; you can take several with you and when one is full, change it as you would film and keep shooting. There are several, unfortunately non-compatible, options available. These are Smart Media (SM), Compact Flash (CF), Sony's Memory Sticks, Multimedia Cards, Click Disk, the new IBM MicroDrive, and just released CD-R.

The 2000 Fall Comdex in Las Vegas also saw the introduction of additional formats, but these are not yet available. SM and CF are the most popular at this time. They are all small cards, about the size of a matchbook, which slide into the camera. You purchase them by memory size, in megabytes, ranging from 4MB to 64MB, with the MicroDrive going up to 340MB. These capacities are increasing as I write this. Some Sony cameras still use a standard 31/2" floppy disk. These are cheap but are limited to 1.4MB, so they can't hold many pictures as the resolution increases. The number of images you can save per megabyte is directly related to the resolution and the amount of image compression you use.

On some cameras, you can set the amount of compression, so you can determine the amount of data you are willing to lose before the image becomes pixilated and looks unacceptable. Setting the camera to Fine, Normal or Basic determines the amount of compression.

Some brands use different terms but the concept is the same. I discourage the use of the basic-highest compression-setting as it gives the lowest quality. A good quality camera will give you a choice of file type as well as degree of compression.

So how many pictures do I get on a memory card? A basic camera my neighbor has includes only 2MB of memory, and at 640x480 resolution, with what it calls fine compression, he can take 16 pictures. This increases to 32 pictures at the basic setting. The average camera with removable memory comes with an 8MB card. Using that as a guide I will reproduce part of a table (with their terms) from the camera I own:

* This is the setting I use most often, but I have to go back and save with a higher level of compression to send the files over e-mail, to keep the size at a reasonable level for a dial-up download.

You might be carrying the camera all day on vacation, so don't overbuy on size just to get a feature you may never use. The box of my still camera says it will take video clips also. But when you look at the spec sheet you find out the video is low resolution and limited to only several seconds, even with a relatively large media card. My camera only gives you 96 seconds with a 32MB memory card at 320X240 resolution - not very practical.

There are several ways you can get the pictures into your computer. The oldest and slowest is with a serial connection. All PCs have a serial port, so you're guaranteed a connection. The preferred way is with USB. It is many times faster, almost every computer now supports USB, and you can "hot-sync" with USB, so you don't have to reboot to connect the camera, as you probably do with a serial connection. Even if your camera only has a direct serial connection, you can still use USB by purchasing a media card reader. Plug the reader into a USB port, remove the memory card from the camera, place it in the reader and your computer now has an additional drive letter, making it fast and easy to copy your pictures. There are even adapters that look like 31/2" floppies that you can put the memory card into.

A related feature is exposure compensation. When you take a picture in a high contrast situation-a person in a dark room with a bright light or window behind them, or outside with the sun behind the person-the camera's automatic exposure controls may be fooled, resulting in a dark or under-exposed subject in front of a properly exposed background.

When shooting in this type of situation, a look at the picture on your LCD will tell you if it is OK or if it needs to be retaken with a fill-in flash or an adjustment to the exposure. An exposure lock feature is useful here.

Remember, if you are using a flash, an on-camera flash has a very limited range, usually 8-10 feet. To increase the range you will probably need a "hot shoe" on the camera to add a second, more powerful, flash, or a sync outlet. (These are found only on high-end, expensive, professional cameras. If you've never used one with your film camera, you're unlikely to need one on a digital model.) Also, red eye reduction flash or slow sync features are desirable as you get more experienced in creative photography.

When it comes to AA batteries you have a choice of several kinds. Single-use alkaline batteries tend to die quickly, especially if you must use that LCD screen to shoot the picture. However, the upside is that they can be found anyplace and are a good backup.

Rechargeable batteries can be nickel-cadmium (NiCad) or nickel metal hydride (NiMH). I recommend the NiMH, as they last longer, lack the memory effect of NiCads, and-despite their higher initial cost-will save you money in the long run. To recharge them, just put them in a charger and plug it in. I recommend two sets if you plan a full day of shooting, like on vacation, as they do take time (hours) to recharge. Some cameras will also work off AC wall outlets which is good for showing the pictures on your TV without depleting the batteries.

I have even seen in-camera effects like sepia toning and special borders for some cameras. I would not personally use them as I prefer a straight original that I can modify on the computer.

My son uses an Olympus D-460, which is almost identical to my D-490 but is only a 1.3MP camera, and he is very satisfied with it. I purchased mine, in part, because I had used and liked his.

Don't be overly influenced by what I purchased. Go out and try them and see what you like within your budget.