By Harold Merton, A.P.

The technology behind digital cameras has been improving by leaps and bounds. The result is digital cameras are making a big inroad into all types of photographic situations.

One of the fastest growing segments is in amateur photography, for people who just like to make a few pictures for their records and friends.

This improved technology combined with lower prices, has made digital a reasonable alternative for many people who just make pictures for fun.

The past few months has been very good for photography stores who sell digital cameras. It is obvious that consumers have either been doing their homework or listening to the advice of those who know the field, because the low end second tier of digital cameras sold out in many areas this past Christmas.

The resolution or quality of digital pictures is measured in megapixels.

When digital cameras were first introduced, a 1 megapixel camera was good - today it is not. Consumers left lots of 1 meg cameras on the shelves the past few months and chose instead 2 megapixel or greater cameras.

Several 2 megapixel models now sell in the $500 to $700 (Canadian $) range and even though many bargain 1 meg cameras were offered in the $200 to $300 range they were for the most part, passed over for the slightly better models which cost a couple of hundred dollars more. There were additional sales in the 3 megs and up category but this is just a small percentage of the digital market at this time.

As a basic guide, a 1 megapixel camera will make a print a maximum size of about 5 by 7 inches while a 2 megapixel camera can make up to an 8 by 10 inch print. Higher 3 megapixel cameras move that maximum size up to about 11 by 14 inches.

What happens if you decide to make an 8 by 10 print from the image captured by a 1 megapixel camera? The answer to this question is simply "the pixels begin to show and you get a poor quality image that looks like little blocks of color."

The closest comparison in conventional photography would be similar to making a poster size print from a small portion of a 35mm negative. The image starts to break up and while it does not deteriorate the same way, the result is similar - a poor quality print that is just not acceptable when viewed from normal distances.

Theoretically one should really consider what the largest size print they would ever want before buying a digital camera. Unfortunately it is not always possible to buy as much quality then as one might want in the future.

A happy medium is sometimes the answer and choosing a 2 megapixel camera is the right choice for a great many people.

When one decides that a digital camera is the right idea for them then they need to think about what they would like to do with it in respect to the pictures it will produce. Will it be a companion for a conventional camera or will it be the only camera they will use? Do they want to make prints or simply create images that will be put on a website?

All these factors influence the buying decision.

Of course it is "a given" that nearly everyone who chooses to buy a digital camera already has a computer. Not having a computer would be like having a car without an engine. You could do some of the things you would like to do, but you really can't get anywhere.

One thing most people should be aware of though is the manipulation and processing of digital images requires a lot of computer operating system memory space (RAM) and hard drive storage space to store the final images.

The most popular digital photographic software on the market today is Adobe Photoshop. It is recommended that one have a minimum of 512 megs of RAM in order to use this program to its fullest. Adobe also makes several smaller versions of this software some under similar names. The lighter or 'limited edition' versions do some of the same things, they just are not as intense. They are really designed to get you using the software and then wanting to get more involved. This requires you to purchase the full edition of the software.

Pictures take up a lot more space than text on the computer and that means you need the ability to store a lot of data.

Digital photographic images occupy anywhere from about 750 K to 9 megs or more so it does not take long to use up storage space, especially when one considers that they might make two or three versions of the same picture once they start manipulating the image.

As a general rule one keeps the original image intact, makes any changes they wish and then saves the new version as a separate file. That gives you double the data you would have had with just the original picture.

If you are about to buy a new computer and plan to use digital photography, it would be a good idea to consider these factors.

Occasionally someone just wants to use digital cameras to make images for the internet. In that case a 1 megapixel camera would be sufficient because the resolution only has to be 72 for the web (because that is the resolution of a monitor). Finer resolution would be much better if one wanted to make a print from the website but the downside is that it would take much more time to load when the website came up and many people would become impatient waiting for it to completely appear and might leave the website to go somewhere else on the internet.

If your goal is only to make images to post to a website then a 1 megapixel camera would be sufficient. However chances are later on you might change your mind and then you just have low resolution images. When you save your images to your hard drive they start to use up a lot of space. You can either buy a larger hard drive (20 to 40 gig) or you might consider adding a CD writer so you could transfer those images from your hard drive to a CD ROM. Using a CD ROM is a good idea because if you have your pictures only on your hard drive and your computer is stolen or totally crashes you have lost all your pictures. If on the otherhand you backed up your pictures to a CD ROM then you have them in a second place. Remember the eleventh commandment "Thou shalt make backups!".

Digital photography can be much more economical than conventional photography once you have purchased your equipment. Many camera stores are now offering photographic prints from digital media cards or by email. You send them your files or take your media card in and they make prints just as if you had taken in a roll of film or negatives. The prints are a few pennies more right now than conventional prints but I expect that the price will come down once they receive sufficient volumes.

The cost of digital media is coming down as well. Most digital cameras will come with an 8 or 16 meg card - usually either Compact Flash or Smart Card. You can see that this will not hold a lot of pictures especially if they are 3 or 4 megs each. The solution is to buy additional cards like extra rolls of film. Usually one buys much larger cards 32, 48 or 64 meg cards. While these cards used to cost over a hundred dollars each the price has come down to less than $50 for a 32 meg card and even as low as about $80 for a 64 meg card. Probably by the time you read this article they will be even more reasonable. You really need to have several cards if you are serious about shooting a lot of pictures.

What do you do once you have captured pictures?

One needs to transfer images from the cards to the computer. The easiest and most economical way is to plug the camera into the computer and transfer the images with the software that comes with the camera. The downside of this is you would be using the camera batteries to do the transfer and they can die in mid-picture and can even transfer specs in the picture as well if the transfer is interrupted in any way. Kodak has a docking station that will work well with their low end cameras but the system I prefer is an optional card reader that acts as a separate drive when viewed on your computer.

There are many of these devices on the market costing about $50. They plug into the USB port on the computer and when you look on your monitor you see an icon for the card reader. You then simply copy the images from the card to wherever you would like on your computer and then can delete the images from the card as well. The bonus to this method is you are using the power from the computer rather than from camera batteries.

Batteries are something else we must consider when it comes to digital photography. Digital cameras are murder on batteries! Consider that they are running the camera, a viewing screen and writing the images to a media card. For these reasons you must use rechargeable batteries, preferably the new NiMh type. Unlike NiCad batteries these batteries do not have to be run completely dead before you recharge them. Not running NiCad batteries down completely developed what the industry refers to as 'a memory'. Theoretically the battery learns that you only wish to use a certain percent of its power before you recharge it so therefore it will only operate to that point each time. Battery life gradually gets shorter and shorter.

With the new NiMh batteries you do not have this problem, allowing you to recharge whenever you wish. I suggest that you have two sets of NiMh batteries with you, one set in the camera and one set for backup.

Digital photography has come of age. It is being used by all segments of the photographic world in some way or another. It might just be right for you.

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Good shooting!