Why Buy a Digital Camera

You may still be using a regular 35 mm camera to take pictures of family, friends and vacation spots. You buy several rolls of film that must be carried, installed, replaced and developed at an additional cost. You have to take your film to a developer, then pick it up when it is ready. But the prints look great. Why buy a digital camera?

No frequent trips to the store. You save time, money and fuel by not having to purchase numerous rolls of film. Instead, you can use a memory stick (or disk, depending upon the camera) which can store many more images. The amount depends on the size you purchased. This is reusable, so you can store images elsewhere and reuse the memory stick (or disk) until it eventually needs replacement. My original memory stick lasted two years!

Instant pictures and no lost rolls. You know how you can use an entire roll of film, then start the next roll at an event. You keep the first roll and wait for the second roll to be used before getting the film developed. When the second roll is finished, you can't find the first roll! Some people mix them with the unused rolls. Of course, the unused rolls have a little film sticking out of the roll. Well, if you use the digital camera, your pictures are in the camera until/unless you delete them or save them elsewhere. And you can see your pictures instantly instead of waiting for the film to be developed.

You can edit your own images. If you take pictures that are too dark, you can lighten them. If your thumb appears at the edge of the picture, you can cut that part out of the picture. You can crop the image to include just the faces of the people in the picture. There are services like this available, but you can do this with your own computer at home.

Digital images are better quality for the Internet. If you wish to include your pictures on your website, digital images are far better than scanned images. If you scan photos, you have to edit the images and optimize them for the web. You would not upload a large file size image saved as a TIFF. Digital cameras allow you to save as TIFF or JPG. TIFF is a better quality, but the file size is too large to upload or download. Scanned images must be cropped. Digital images usually don't need much editing.

Save and send images on your computer. You can save images to your computer's hard drive or to a cd. You can also send images by email instead of sending printed photos by regular mail. This is faster and more convenient. If you plan to send alot of images by email, you may want to zip an entire folder of images.

Save space and protect images. Instead of having numerous photo albums with pictures that fill your bookcase, you can save images on cds. Store copies in a fire-proof box in case of disaster such as fire, flood or moving. Yes, many people move and lose their belongings in the process. You can save an enormous amount of images on a cd and carry it in your purse or pocket.

Delete bad pictures before printing or saving them. You can review your images and delete that picture of your foot you took while dropping your camera. You can chose to save, print or send any images you like. Regular film processing will develop all pictures on the roll, no matter how they look.

If you decide to buy a digital camera, compare brands, prices, features and support. Look for zoom (if you plan to use it), memory stick (instead of flash disks), USB plug in to computer to transfer files to computer, additional features you may want. I like the rotating view screen instead of the little view window, but this is a more expensive feature.

I like Sony products, but I must admit that their support is not very supportive. Olympus has great cameras and I heard from a reseller of many brand cameras that Olympus has much better support. If you purchase an expensive camera, support is important, because you don't want to simply replace an expensive camera should something go wrong.

Search the Internet and read reviews of those who purchased the cameras. Don't just go into a camera store and ask what they recommend, because it will be whatever you can afford that is in stock! Remember to purchase any accessories that may not be included. Once you get a digital camera, you will use it much more than your regular camera.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, August 13, 2003

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