What camera should I choose?

How do I choose the camera I want? What traits should I pay attention to? Details please...?

• I thought that the higher are megapixels, the higher is the quality of a picture. Wrong. I tried a 10 megapixel camera from Canon (digital elph) and the pics come out really grainy. Not that the camera is bad, but it's not what I am looking for. What I would like to know is what sort of camera I should look for if I'm looking for a good quality in nature pics, mountains, forests, ocean, etc. Nature in one word. And also how can I make sure that zoomed in images will look good, clear (not obscure), as if it's not taken from too far away. Now, I know very little about cameras. I would really appreciate if you give me the exact parameters I need to look for, from what range to what range, what sort of lens, what brand, how many megapixels... Details please. And if you know the price ranges, it would also help a lot. Also, what should I look for the images taken at dusk and dawn, w/t a lot of light. I appreciate whatever info I can get.

• Answer:

  There are three key things you should look for: 1) Speed. The faster the response when you press the shutter button, the better you'll be able to capture those special moments. This is known as shutter lag. You want a very small shutter lag. The best is around 0.1 second. The worst is around 2 seconds. 2) Noise. In low light conditions, a camera with "noisy" electronics will produce images with lots of speckles. This is similar to "graininess" found on film cameras. You want a camera with very low noise, especially at ISO settings of 400 or more. This will result in nice clean shots in low light conditions. 3) Image sharpness. A crisp image will be the combination of a good lens and image sensor. The only way to get the best of all three features is to go with a DSLR style camera, such as the Nikon D40. The downside to DSLR cameras is that they are large and heavier that something like a pocket side digital elph.