I have a question about digital cameras, what I am looking for is a good camera for a mediocre photographer, I have no instinct for composition but if you take twenty photos of say the same engine one of them will find you in the right position. I want a camera that, should I accidentally be in a position to produce a good photo, will capture it. My specific question: what is the megapixel range I should be looking for? This will be a camera body with the ability to attach lenses, e.g. a Canon Eos. I have a Canon AE-1 film camera that I unfortunately bought just a few years before digital photography became available and I haven't used it in around 15 years. Thanks in advance for your tips.

I swear by my Canon Shureshot. It has a 20:1 zoom without any other lenses.

Depends on what your use of the image is. My go-to is still a Nikon D3100 DSLR, 14.2 megapixel (now discontinued, replaced by the D3500, I think). It came with an 18-55mm zoom and I added a 55-300mm zoom and external flash. For what I do, it covers all the bases. Oddly enough, I’m not a “rail fan photographer”, I use it primarily for photographic/graphic art projects and the occasional news piece. Though not a top of the line setup, it may be slight overkill for occasional use but it does a mighty fine job. A used one would serve you well.

The good news is that the the megapixel per dollar ratio has gone way up since I bought mine. Almost any midrange and up point & shoot will give decent results. Lens diameter and optical zoom are the two most important things to consider for the sharpest images. For archival or print publication uses, shoot at the highest resolution. This is adjustable in the menus. For snapshots or web use, the lower resolutions which makes smaller file sizes is OK. Use RAW format if capable for professional use, JPG for everything else.

Thanks to both Bowmore and Jayrod for the replies. 14-20 megapixels it is! I too just want to preserve images, not publish, I really wish I had mowed lawns all summer when I was 11 or so and bought an slr so that I could have captured images of lines I grew up around in the late seventies before the mass abandonments in the early eighties.