Digital Cameras Offer More Pixels For The Buck; Pics Rival Film Quality; With 4 or 5 megapixels, you can make big prints without losing resolution.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)(COMPUTERS MADE PLAIN)

Byline: TED NEEDLEMAN

You know that digital photography has hit the mainstream when you can buy digital cameras at the local supermarket.

These models aren't cutting-edge, mind you. They're inexpensive and provide image resolutions of about 1 megapixel, or a million discrete picture elements.

Still, they work fine if you only plan to print small snapshots. If you're serious about your photography, though, you'll want higher resolution -- and that means more pixels.

The good news is, prices are way down -- even for high-resolution cameras. And there are plenty of vendors and models to choose from. At a minimum, consider a 3 megapixel model. That will give you very good quality prints at 3-by-5, 4-by-6 and even 5-by-7 image sizes.

Most of the less expensive …