There are hundreds of places to buy digital photo gear, both at local stores and on-line. If you're interested in buying a digital camera, lens, or accessory, my recommendations for places to look are listed below.

But before you ever enter a local store or buy on-line, first take the time to make yourself an educated consumer. A good place to start is the DIGITAL CAMERA BUYING GUIDE given on line by Digital Photography Review, at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare.asp. Here you will be asked to enter your criteria such as price range you have in mind and other features. This will help you narrow your selection to a few, and make side-by-side comparisons. My suggestion is to narrow the choices to three or four, then go to the manufacturer's website (Canon, Sony, Kodak, etc.) to learn even more. Another good source of pricing and comparison information is at the digital camera section of cnet.com, http://www.cnet.com/.

If you need a small simple digital camera, I suggest getting one with at least 3 MB image capability, an optical range of 3X or more, compact flash (CF) memory of at least 250 MB (you'll have to purchase a separate CF card to get this), and one that runs preferably off ubiquitous AA batteries (such as the Canon A80) or if not, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Stick with the major manufacturers (Olympus, Canon, Sony, Kodak, Nikon, Minolta, etc.) and don't buy an off-brand model. One example (among hundreds) is the Canon PowerShot A80 ($300 street). If you need a full-featured camera for serious digital photography, look for higher-end SLR models with at least 6 to 10 MB image capability, interchangeable lenses, RAW image capture capability, CF storage, or for tethered operation, IEEE 1394 (Firewire) output. Expect to pay anywhere from $1000 to $5000 depending on features. Examples of cameras in this class include the Canon EOS 10D/20D ($1500 street), Canon EOS 300D/Digital Rebel ($850 street), Nikon D100 ($1450 street), Fujifilm FinePix S2 Pro ($1700 street), or Kodak DCS SLR/n ($4500 street).

Local stores

Armed with your knowledge of buying criteria, you can now venture out to your local mass-marketing electronics-photo-video stores such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart, etc. Your venture should also include photo specialty stores such as Ritz Photo, Hunts Photo, or other local stores that specialize in photo gear, since the sales people in these shops will usually be much more knowledgeable about digital photography, digital cameras, etc. than the mass-marketers in Best Buy, etc. These specialty photo shops will also have a larger offering of accessories such as camera bags, lens filters, lenses, etc.

Here are some stores, and their websites:

Best Buy, http://www.bestbuy.com/

Circuit City, http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/home.do

Ritz Camera, http://www.ritzcamera.com/

Hunt's Photo (New England only), http://huntsphotoandvideo.com/

You can often get better selection and better prices by buying from on-line marketers. But beware, it's a jungle out there. There are hundreds of on-line stores that engage in bait-and-switch practices, do not stand behind their products, and are best avoided. Happily, there are also some that provide excellent prices, customer support and are quite helpful. One of those that I recommend is:

B&H Photo (New York City), http://www.bhphotovideo.com/  (very popular among professional photographers)