Richard Avedon (and Olivia) are correct. A camera with umpteen megapickles and all the bells and whistles, will not produce more than snapshots with someone who has no eye. (And yes, that eye can be taught!)

One thing about Brad's camera Denise. The problem isn't the bells and whistles as Brad shows, but believe it or not, it is about megapickles too...or it is with the first digitals. Most cameras will now take 6+ megapickle pictures now. That wasn't the case with old cameras. Many of the older cameras would only take pictures with 1-3 megapickles, meaning if you wanted to blow it up alot you might lose some sharpness.

For example, the maximum size for a 1.3 megapixel camera doing a standard print (not a high resolution print) is 6" x 8". For most of us that's good enough. However, for those wishing to have an art print for their walls, the same 1.3 megapickles would only yield a print 3" x 4".

Compare that to todays point and shoots that have 7.1 megapickles:
A standard print size would be 15" x 20" or for maximum resolution the size would be 8" x 10".

Now for most of us, art prints are not necessary. And anyway if you want to get a great art print, then you'd use an digital SLR camera as those give the finest resolution. For most of us getting a nice size digital print for our own enjoyment is more than enough which is why you would probably prefer a camera with a minimum of 4 megapickles (which would yield a standard print size of 10" x 16"). Why do I say 4? Just in case you do shoot that fabulous shot and want to blow it up!