The camera comes with everything you need to get started and a lot of electronic stores have sales running where you can even get an XD card with purchase. Initially it has the USB cord and all the manuals you need to take great pictures, but if you get it while they're doing a sale and you get the XD card it's even better. An XD card starts at about $19 and they're nice to keep in all the time. One thing I noticed about the camera however is that it only stores about 4 pictures on the actual camera. Another not so hot characteristic of this camera is that the video taking doesn't include sound....