I have no experience with digital cameras, either buying or using them, but want to get one now. I want something fairly cheap ($100 max is what I can afford), and basic w/o a lot of gimmicky doo-dads that’ll take me forever to figure out. What should I be looking for, or take into consideration when shopping for one? An any tech-savvvy folks give me some advice?
I don’t know much but I know this:
The more megapixels the better and will be more expensive.
And for $100 the camera will not have very many do-dads.
I’m looking to get one soon for about $200 and those do not have a lot of do-dads either which is fine by me. I just want photos to look at when I’m old and senile.
The one thing I know is don’t take digital zoom into consideration. Optical zoom is what you want. If it’s like 2xOptical 600xDigital it’s no good. All the digital “zoom” does is blow up a small chuck of the maximum optical picture. So sure, it zoomed, but it’s low quality and you can do it in photoshop yourself, and better.
Also be sure to read the manual and see if you can turn off the digital zoom, or how to avoid it.
Um, actually, megapixels aren’t the most important thing to consider any more. Any camera with 5 or more megapixels is going to give you plenty of scope for printing even 8x11 pictures, and in fact as the number of megapixels goes up, the picture quality actually tends to go down, as the pixels are crammed into the same space and heat and digital noise become issues.
Things that are more important to consider:
Optical (not digital) zoom and lens quality.
Overall picture quality (not just MP, but also noise levels).
Battery type and life.
Build quality.
Warranty.
Ergonomics (don’t underestimate the frustration of working with a camera that’s a pain to operate).
At the $100 price point, the range is a little limited, but if you can go up to around $150, you’ll have a camera that will be fairly adaptable and last for a while. My personal recommendation is the Canon PowerShot A430, which is a nice blend of usability and satisfactory performance. You can find a couple of reviews of this camera here and here.
Absoultely NOT. This is the most common misconception about digital cameras. All that means is the images will be larger, not better. Optics, electronics, and features will determine if your pictures are better. In fact, with the small sensors in most P&S cameras, adding more pixels will end up degrading image quality.
This is true. If you can push your budget a bit bigger you have a much more useful selection.
The very basic camera offerings by Canon (A430) and Kodak (sorry, no model numbers) will get you a basic camera that takes decent shots. You’ll have a 3x optical zoom but that is fine. As others said, digital zoom isn’t worth anything.
If you can jump up a little more, say $150, you can get a very nice Canon A540 which has just been replaced by a newer model. It has better features and image quality and will allow you to use the manual controls.
Expect to spend more money then just the camera. You’ll need a set of NiMH rechargeable batteries and charger, plus a larger memory card and a camera case. Those will set you back about $30-50 depending on what you want.
$100 is pretty low end, most models near that price have a very small amount of internal memory, so you’ll also want a memory card. Also consider rechargeable batteries, digital cameras eat batteries like candy.
My suggestions from NewEgg, all have 4 or 5 star ratings:
Vivitar 6150s Silver 6.0 MP Digital Camera $79.99
Kingston 1GB Secure Digital (SD) Flash Card $8.99
LENMAR PRO-99 Battery & Charger 4-pack 2300mAh AA Ni-MH $14.99
Shipping (UPS 3 day to Washington) $10.31
Grand Total: $114.28
Doh! beaten to the punch. My suggestion is still a good one IMHO 
a) Anything with 4-5 megapixels or more is fine. More megapixels sometimes means worse quality.
b) Look at the optical zoom #.
c) Look at the physical diameter of the lens, without going into complicated specifics you can probably assume the bigger the diameter the better the quality.
Something like this should do fine.
This thread is better suited for IMHO.
I’ll move it for you.
Cajun Man
for the SDMB
Thank you for letting me know because I would have gone with a camera with a higher MP over one with a good optical zoom and a nice big lens. Ignorance has been beaten. 
The ones you guys have suggested look good. With my limited budget, $200, I know I’m getting the lower end but I don’t need a camera with night-vison or whatever cameras can do these days. I just want nice clean pictures.
For under $200, good image quality, nice feature set (including full manual controls), and solid build, I’d look at the Canon A540. If you can pony up a little more, the Canon A570 IS (just introduced) is a pretty fantastic deal. Both of these are cameras you can grow with for a while.
At his price-point (US$ 100) they are. Plus optical zoom.
No, they aren’t. More megapixels means your image is bigger, that’s all. If the quality of those pixels is lousy, who cares that you have more? At that price point a lot of corners are going to be cut, I’d concentrate on image quality and build quality above all else.
I’d actually go for a non-zoom camera, since you’re likely to get a much better fixed lens then a crappy 3x zoom. A 3x zoom (usually 35mm to 105mm) is just barely enough to make a difference in the real world. Zooming in on things that are far away just isn’t going to happen no matter what. Most things it’ll be easier simply to walk forward.
A camera that inexpensive is going to be used for snapshots, sending pictures of things via email, and occasionally printing out a 4x6. More pixels isn’t going to be a major factor. Zoom would be nice, but you’re not going to get much for under $100.
If I’m not totally overstepping my bounds, I have a gently-used digital camera that would be perfect for the OP’s criteria and price range. It’s a few years old (3.2 megapixels back when that was awesome), but a great name brand, high quality, and very user-friendly.