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I used a walmart Concord camera that is a 3.1 megapixels. It costed me only 80- I also used a Lexar Memory stick (64 megabyte) inside the camera to hold about 312 pictures and up to 6 minutes silent video. The camera had a macro mode meaning you can get close to the HO scale model (9 inches) and a regular mode for 2.5 feet away to infinity. It did not have a zoom. I found the camera limited in having a "Fixed" focus point. I could never exactly nail the picture I am trying to take in close model work. I use a Sony DCR-TRV 460 model Camcorder which is capable of taking snap shots. The Zoom, 512 megabyte memory stick and ability to take video on both tape and memory stick finally settles the need in any situation day or night. I beefed it up with accessories to the point of almost being able to stay out in the field for 8 hours taking video and pictures free from the 110 volt electricity. I realize using a camcorder to take digital pictures is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel on overkill but Ive learned I have a taste to make videos of trains running as well as taking still shots. Digital Cameras are best if you have a USB interface to communicate with a computer with either a Windows XP Pro or MAC OS 9.1 (latest ?) so you can take care of your own pictures forever free from the film developing places. To answer your question about ease of use.. I hook up the USB to the computer, then connect the smaller end to the camera which will automatically "turn on" and say USB connected in the LCD screen on the back. On my computer Win XP Pro SP2, the USB marker comes up on the task bar, I double click "My computer" and view availible drives. One of these will show "LEXAR" as the one that is used by the camera. I simply drag the contents of that drive onto the computer hard drive in a folder and I am ready to go. I had a camera a really small one with a driver on disk. I found that disk to be full of UNECESSARY files and other things not required for camera operation so I decided that a camera with a Lexar memory stick or similar will be able to communicate with the computer without the need for a drivers. Additionally if you have USB 2.0 on your computer (can be obtained as a PCI card for about 20 bucks that connects to your motherboard) you can move the pictures and video really fast from camera to computer. Firewire will do it even faster but that is not really necessary for home use. Remember that anything over 3.1 megapixels on up means pictures that are so big that they may be difficult for a dailup user to view on the internet. I use Photobucket and my images so far are all under 250 kb in size. If you see the PRR reefer block that was taken in regular mode and the dock with boxes scene was taken in macro mode. I think the camera was about 7 inches from the dock and about 6 feet from the PRR train. I hope this helps. If I dont have to worry about money I probably would get the Canon Digital Rebel. I think that camera you can weild like a weapon... aim and fire.
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