What is there too look for in term of specficatations, when in search of buying a digital camera?

I know

Price
Brand

what other stuff should I look for as well?

Are we talking about DSLRs or Point and Shoot?

I can only advice you about the latter since I haven't actually owned a DSLR but would love to in the future.

When I buy a Point and Shoot camera, I always look for brands, right now at the moment only Sony, Nikon and Canon really takes my vote. But Sony is my first choice for biased reasons that I am a Sony fan.

But I would advice to consider the mega pixels, the lens width and also the optical zoom because these are the specifications I always look at. The higher the mega pixels, the higher the clarity of detail and thus you can print on bigger resolutions like posters ... etc. The lens width is self explanatory and lastly the optical zoom determines how far in you can zoom on an object without compromising the quality by too much.

Side tracking for a while, I own a Sony DSC T100 and I really like it, would definitely be putting it to good use when I travel come this July.

I own a Nikon CoolPix L1 digital Camera.
At 6.2 Megapixels and 5x optical Zoom
It proves to be very useful.
I only paid $179. USD

I always use a mono-pod with it as this way
I don't forget to carry it with me and its hard
to loose.

I use it for pix on eBay and for Virtual pix
for real estate. I also create Screen savers
and it has performed well!

Optical Zoom is far better than digital zoom.
My last camera had 12x Optical Zoom.

The cost for digital cameras has really plummeted
over the last 3 years and there are some great bargains!

Take the time to research out the model you want
before you but it and you won't be disappointed!

thanks for the tips, people

Most important thing is reviews. Because a camera can claim to do "so many megapixels" or whatever, but the image quality can still be junk. A camera with less resolution might have much higher quality at the same resolution as a camera capable of higher resolutions, but you'd never know that if you didn't ask someone or read reviews online or in consumer reports or whatever.

I think everything that has been said up to now is very helpful. I will also say that the resolution and zoom tend to be very important factors in your choice, especially for quality.

The resolution, in megapixels, varies on the camera, and depending on what you want to do, the better the resolution, the bigger and better quality pictures you can have. Also, the zoom, optical is much better for the quality of your images.

Other things you may want to consider, depending on what you are looking for that had been looked over but can be useful to know to consider:

Storage type of your pictures. What type of memory cards do thy take, are the expensive and do they come in big enough sizes?

What type of batteries? Lithium, or rechargeable/AA batteries. There are pros and cons to each.

The Flash modes can also be important, that is, how much you can adjust them and so on.

Th frame rate has gotten much better and faster now, but some cameras are still very slow in taking pictures and/or saving them. Try to test out your potential cameras in a store before hand. I think some stores eve let you rent them, and you can test them out in your leisurely time too!

So take your time if you need to, shop around, test, inform yourself on specs and definitely check out the reviews.

These are good suggestions. Another thought is to first realistically decide how you are going to use the camera and what are you willing to pay. If you aren't going to do much printing of pictures, the megapixels are much less important. If you want a camera to carry around, shoot friends and things, a small point and shoot works best. If you want to do nature photography you will probably need an SLR with a telephoto lens.

I think in general all the major brands make good cameras. Stop by a store and handle a few to see what feels good to you.

These are the specs you should be looking for before buying a camera.

1> Firstly the megapixels. Apparently the more the better. But with increasing megapixels it needs more & more memory to store the images. So with a camera of 12MP it would need something around a 4gb Memory card to store your images (It would save something around 512 pics for around 3000 X 4000 resolution at superfine quality). So don't go for that more & more megapixels cause no normal home pc monitors are more than 1600 X 1200 resolution. You just don't need it. Get one which is of something round 8-10 megpix.

2> Check for Optical Zoom this time the more it the better. 8X or 10X would be great. But for a decent price you'll get 6X Zoom. Don't go for Cameras which say 24X Digital Zoom. Keep in mind Digital Zoom just increases your picture digitally that is it zooms the pixels and the end result is that the picrture is of very poor quality. Go for Cams which say the have high Optical Zoom. It is better causwe it mechanically zooms on the picture like any telezoom enabled SLR cams.

3>: Last but not the least check batterty life. Go for the long life batteries . Buy it although it may have a high price cause you don't want to see the tag "Change Batteries" on the LCD when you are in midst of a good photo taking opportunity.

I think these 3 points should be enough to buy a camera. Also don't forget to check if the camera has night vision if you want to photograph shots during the night. That wouyld be quite helpful.

I don't really know, but that's what the sales representatives at the stores are there for. All I have to say is: digital cameras rock, and I don't know how we went without them before their time. I mean, if I couldn't look at the pictures right after I took them, I would go crazy. I remember when I used disposable cameras and I would take all the pictures right away and got them developed RIGHT AWAY. I was always really impatient to see them, and now I'm spoiled.