I think you should go for no less than 5MP, but 7, 7.2 are the best for general purpose. You can't believe it, how good the pictures are with 7.2MP camera, amazing as compared to 5MP. More than 8MP might be the waste of money if you are not professonal one. If you need cheaper, then go for Kodak, but Sony provides with better quality though little bit expensive. You should buy at least 1GM memory stick/card if you have 7-8MP digital camera. For 5MP, you should have at least 512MB stick/card that stores around 200 or little more pictures with 5MP resolution. Never take any picture of resolution less than 5MP. If some picture does not come out good, you can simply delete them and make space.