I'm seriously considering getting one of those Stylus Epic cameras to mess around with. I've never done anything photography related so I'm pretty clueless about this. Is 35mm film easy to get my hands on? And can I just take the film to any Walgreens or drug store to be developed or should I take it to somewhere else?
35mm is easy to get your hands on, the quality of film will depend on how much you are willing to spend.
Personally, I love fresh Portra 400. Unfortunately, this film is around $10 a roll. You can find propacks of 5 that will save you some money, but not much. You can also find different expired film for much cheaper but it'll be hit or miss. Some rolls might look super good while others are going to be muddy and terrible. If you're just planning messing around, i would say buy the cheap color film they have at walgreens and if you really want to up the quality, think about investing in a large stockpile of fresh portra.
you can develop this film at walgreens, the one i go to has never failed me. the scans will be low resolution but will look fine and sharp on the computer, you just won't be able to print large using the files they give you on the CD. When you take your film to CVS/Walgreens you have to specify that you want the images scanned onto a photo CD or they'll just give you 4x6 prints.