What can you expect from an entry-level digital camera? Right away, you'll be able to take advantage of several of the most important benefits that digital technology gives us.

As with all digital cameras, you can download your photos to your computer and make prints or e-mail copies to friends and family. You can print only the photos you like. You can also easily employ the amazing capabilities of photo-processing software to perfect your images.

Perhaps the best feature of digital cameras in any price range is the LCD monitor. It allows us to compose and instantly review our photos. If you haven't yet experienced photography with the aid of an LCD, you're in for a pleasant surprise.

When you use the LCD to compose your photographs, you see exactly the image that you're taking. Once you've taken a photo, you can immediately play it back to check that you got the shot you wanted. You can also delete photos that you don't like, thereby freeing memory space for more shots.

At the entry-level price range, expect to get image resolution of about 2 mega- pixels. You'll find that this is enough resolution for photo-quality prints of about 4x6-inches, which may be all you're looking for. This level of resolution is more than plenty for Web uses or e-mail.

With less expensive digital cameras, you won't likely get a lot of control over exposure, although some new models are incorporating more control even at the lower end of the price scale.

However, these point-and-shoot cameras generally make excellent automatic exposures. Some also offer a variety of exposure modes that are pre-programmed for specific photographic situations. (For a detailed look at these modes, see "Scenes A La Mode," PCPhoto, September 2025, or on our Website at pcphotomag.com).

Cameras in the entry-level price range are usually very compact—some of the smallest cameras available today fall into this category. That makes them very convenient to take along almost anywhere. However, the size and price constraints limit the power of the lens, so don't expect more than a 2x or 3x zoom range on these cameras. Some have fixed focal-length lenses, meaning there's no zoom capability at all.

If you're new to digital imaging devices, you need to know about memory cards. There are currently five types of digital camera memory cards, and although they all do basically the same thing, they differ widely in size and shape. The type of memory you'll need depends entirely on the camera you buy, as each camera requires a specific type of card.

The most important thing to note here is that you'll need to buy memory cards in addition to what comes with your camera; manufacturers generally include a "starter" card, but these aren't of sufficient capacity for more than a few photographs. So count the cost of additional memory into your camera buying decision. While these cards can be pricey, keep in mind that, unlike film, you can use them over and over again.

Finally, getting those images off of your camera's card has never been easier. Most cameras today, even in the lower price range, are USB-compatible, allowing you to download your images relatively quickly directly from the camera using a USB cable. There are also a good many card readers available for a modest expense that you can leave connected to your computer all of the time. Slide your camera's memory card into these convenient devices and the card becomes a virtual drive on your computer from which you can open or move your image files just as you would from a CD or your computer's hard drive. (For more information, see "Memory Cards And Card Readers" on page 44 in this issue.)

Even if you're just a casual shooter, we're sure that you'll find digital photography in many ways more exciting and rewarding than traditional film photography. The ability to instantly review your photos in the field and quickly import photos into your computer at home just can't be beat.