Many people ask me about digital cameras and want suggestions on buying their first one. I have used digital cameras the last four years, read many articles on digitals and talked to several people who use digitals. Does that make me an expert? No, but I disagree with most of the experts. They say the name of the game is pixels and the more pixels the better and you can never have too many pixels, no matter the cost. Bull!!!

Ninety-nine percent of the time I make pictures on low resolution or the old VGA standard of 640 x 480 pixels. It is the recommended size for pictures sent by e-mail and posted on websites. Did you ever receive an e-mail picture someone sent at a high resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels? On a phone line it would take several minutes to download the picture whereas the low resolution picture can be downloaded in a few seconds. I recently made two identical pictures in low (640 x 480) and high (2048 x 1536) resolution to compare the results. The low resolution picture displayed clear and sharp on my computer screen and the high resolution was also clear and sharp but too big for my 14.1" display. The first contained 116KB of data while the latter took a whopping 1,207KB. WOW, what a difference, over ten times more data to display a picture bigger, but really not better.

Pixels are colored dots that make a picture so one made at 640 x 480 contains 307,200 colored dots or pixels. A picture in 2048 x 1536 mode contains 3,145,728 colored dots or pixels. When a picture is displayed on a computer most human eyes can see no difference in quality between the two pictures, but a computer needs over ten times the space to store the larger resolution picture and over ten times as long to download it over the internet.

The experts are pushing digital cameras with 3, 4 or even 5 million pixels, but a camera with 2 million pixels is all an amateur photographer needs. The key items are a good lense and zoom, the more zoom the better. Digital cameras have two types of zoom, optical and digital. Forget digital, the optical zoom is all that counts. I recommend an optical zoom of at least 3X and you may want to go as high as 10X. Digital zooms actually crop the picture in the camera, then blow the cropped part to full size so clarity is compromised. Never use digital zoom when you want a sharp and clear picture.

Most digital cameras have automatic focus and color balance and they work great. Do not buy a camera with exchangeable lenses and manual controls unless you are an expert photographer. Many times I have seen an interesting subject like a duck swimming in water. With my automatic I can point and shoot getting a good picture. I have seen people with complicated cameras search for the correct lens and settings while the duck flies away.

Many digital cameras are bulky and heavy. Imagine hanging a two pound camera bag on your shoulder for a five mile scenic hike. I like small cameras that weigh a few ounces and can be placed in a shirt or pants pocket. Get a camera with an automatic lens cover so the lens won't get dirty or scratched.

Forget any camera with a diskette for a storage device as you will need to carry extra disks and they hold few pictures. Get a camera with a memory card and I recommend at least a 64M card. My new camera will hold 497 pictures in low resolution and 50 pictures in the highest resolution. It will also make a 60 second video.

Most new cameras come with a USB port for loading pictures to the computer. I can download and save 40 pictures in less than one minute with my new camera whereas my old camera with a parallel port took 20 minutes for the same operation.

To print your pictures you need an inkjet printer and they have dropped in price so a quality printer can be bought for $250 or more. If you print pictures in 3" x 5" size, low resolution pictures will work OK, but if you plan to enlarge pictures up to 8" x 10" then you need to use a higher resolution.

Make albums (files or folders) in your computer to store the pictures so they are easy to find and of course also save the pictures to a CD so if your hard drive fails you won't lose your pictures.

Before you buy a digital camera borrow it from the camera store and make some pictures inside and outside. Try the zoom and flash. Look at the LCD display and make sure the pictures are clear and sharp with vivid colors. Try different cameras and buy the cheapest one that does a good job.

So my recommendation is to buy a small digital camera with a 3X optical zoom, automatic controls, USB port and a 64M storage card. For about $250 you can buy an excellent digital camera. Now, make hundreds of pictures and delete those you don't like.

New Camera Resolution: 640 x 480, 1280 x 960,
1600 x 1200, 2048 x 1536 (normal), 2048 x 1536 (fine)
Size: 3 7/8" long - 2 1/2" high
No. Pictures: Lowest Resolution 497, Highest Resolution 50
Memory Card: 64 Meg