To Everyone,

Well, I finally did it! I purchased a digital camera. It is a Fujifilm FinePix 3800. 3.2 Million Effective pixels; 6X Optical and 3.2 Digital zoom. Now the purpose of my telling you this is not to announce my camera purchase but to share some very interesting information I learned in researching these pieces of equipment. It would be to your benefit to print this article out if you contemplate purchasing a digital camera in the near future.

I am sure John Yee and the other "digital" experts know what I am about to share with you. However, I did not know nor I would bet YOU do not know the following facts involving digital cameras.

1) Most people will purchase a digital camera with 5.0 or even greater million effective pixels therby spending much more money than needed. If you are going to print pictures up to 11 X 14 or smaller YOU don't need anything more than 3.0. The 4.0, 5.0 etc. are needed if your are going to PRINT banners or huge pictures and want to retain the detail. How many of us are going to do that? Most of us will print 4 X 6 or 8 X 10. Why spend hundreds of dollars extra for the overkill when you don't need it? The main point is 5.0 or 4.0 etc. usually is used by us lay people to determine printing quality. If you are not going to print greater than 8 X 10 save your money. You cannot tell the difference in an 8 X 10 shot with a 3.0 or 4.0 0r 5.0 megapixel camera. If anyone tells you different they are not being truthful.

2) Optical zoom is important. It is far more important than digital zoom. In fact digital zoom really means very little. Digital zoom comes into play AFTER a picture is taken. Lets say you want to check the picture you just took. You would use the digital zoom to enlarge it in the LCD monitor. Look for a little bigger LCD monitor rather than greater digital zoom. Most people will use their digital zoom to check for "red" eye in their flash pictures. Also, to check a picture to see if you got what you wanted in the picture. Optical zoom uses the optics or lens of the camera to move you closer to your subject. This is the important feature of the camera not digital zoom.

3) Many of the new printers not yet out are going to utilize the xd - picture card. It's the film thing you put in the camera. What we use to call film. Sony has a "stick" and other companies something else. Right now you will probably have to purchase a cf card adapter if you buy a printer so that you can print pictures NOW.I recommend you purchase a camera that utilizes the xd - picture card it is the format of the future.

4) The camera I bought is USB or Universal Serial Bus. Most of us are familiar with USB since we hook our scanners, modem, external hard drives, etc. with this technique. I have discovered you are better off purchasing a seperate uploader rather than putting the wear and tear on your camera when transferring your pictures to the computor. The uploaders are around $20.00 to $25.00 and worth every penny. The higher end printers can also be used to transfer your pictures to the computor as well as print WITHOUT using your computor at all. If the camera you want to buy has firewire - OK but you better make sure your computor has a port for it.

5) Always keep the camera set to its highest resolution. You may not be able to take as many pictures but you will retain the quality of the pictures you do take. Once you take the picture you can NEVER increase its quality! Quality is quality you may be able to mask it but you can not replace it.

To be continued.