There is a great number of factors to look for when purchasing a new digital camera, but apart from the number of megapixels, brand, lens, and features, you should also consider the camera's ease of use, the media that it comes with, and its playback options.

1. Familiarize yourself with the camera's controls - although this might not be the most important feature of a camera, there are some odd models out there that have counter-intuitive controls, buttons that are positioned where they should not be, and buttons that are difficult to reach.
   If at all possible, always take the time to work the controls - if there are particular settings that you use often, make sure that they are easy to change and you won't have to navigate countless menus until you reach them.
   This is especially important for the digital cameras with touch screens, which lack dedicated buttons that you might be accustomed to.
   
2. Keep in mind that the vast majority of digital cameras come with insufficient internal memory.
   Unless you purchase a camera package, you are likely to get your digital camera only with its internal 16MB or 32MB memory.
   This storage space would let you to snap only a few photos in high resolution and you should be prepared to purchase an external memory card off the bat.
   Luckily, the memory cards' prices have dropped considerably in the past few years, so you will not have to pay an arm and leg for them, but you should still budget for them beforehand.
   
3. Consider buying cameras that offer magnified photo preview.
   This might sound like one of the last features that you would look for in a camera, but it comes in handy if you want to snap high quality photos.
   A magnified photo preview allows you to see your images in detail and discard the ones that do not come out as you expect them to.
   This is especially helpful when you use bracketing and take a number of photos of the same subject with slightly different settings, as using the magnified preview would help you decide which ones to keep and which ones to discard.