• Sometimes The Answers To The Ancillary Questions Can Be As Important As The Main One: “What Camera Do I Buy?”

How do I know if I have enough memory cards for my camera?

Many manufacturers include a starter media card with the camera. This starter card probably won’t hold the number of pictures you might be used to taking, and once a card is full, you can’t reuse it until you’ve had a chance to download all the pictures off the card. Moderate-sized memory cards have become quite reasonable in price. Be sure you have enough space available for the photography you like to do.

The quick answer is that you’ll always need room for just one more image than the last one you took. While you can delete images that you don’t like, there’s nothing more frustrating than not having room for that one last shot. Fortunately, manufacturers are making media cards that hold even more pictures than ever before at a lower cost per megabyte of storage.

You also can consider a portable storage device that allows you to plug your media card right into a battery-operated hard drive, download images directly to it and free up your memory card.

It really depends on how much you use the flash, the camera’s zoom, the auto-focus and the LCD viewfinder. If you turn off the camera as soon as it isn’t being used and limit use of the LCD monitor (the LCD monitor is a big draw on your batteries’ power), you might be able to shoot for days. But that isn’t always possible. If the same camera and LCD panel are constantly on, you’re searching for photos with steady use of the zoom and autofocus, and those photos are being taken indoors where flash is required, the batteries may quit within an hour. The good news here is that battery technology has advanced quite a bit in the past few years.

Higher capacity nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries have replaced the nickel cadmium (NiCads) batteries of the past. And while they may come with a quick charger, it would be a good idea to get an extra set of batteries. That way, you can have one on the charger while you’re using the other set. I recommend keeping sets of batteries together (for example, four AAs used for a camera), so they’ll last longer.

With a digital zoom, won’t I have all the magnification I need?

While a digital zoom can bring images in close, you sacrifice picture quality. The digital zoom crops the image, then does what your image-editing software does—spreads out pixels and interpolates in between those pixels to bring the file size back to the uncropped size. If you really want to “zoom in,” consider buying one of the high-ratio zoom compact digital cameras on the market or see if you can find accessory lenses made either by your camera manufacturer or by third-party lens manufacturers.

And while you’re considering lenses, have you thought about close-up photography? Whether it’s shooting flowers from a bee’s perspective or capturing all the details of that item you want to offer on eBay, macro lenses can open up a whole new world of photography. Your camera might even be able to focus up-close already!

With my 35mm camera, I had lens filters. Do I need these filters with my digital camera?

Optics are optics. The technology that “powered” the optical system of your 35mm camera is very similar to what’s used in digital cameras today; to put it another way, the camera is digital, not the lens! (Actually, the camera isn’t completely digital, but that’s a topic for another column.)

Since the optics are similar, the types of filters you’ve used on 35mm cameras will help you capture better images with digital cameras, too! A polarizer will help reduce reflections, strengthen colors and intensify contrast. Graduated filters will help with that dreaded bright sky. And any filter on your lens may offer some protection against scratches if your shooting conditions threaten. (Better to replace the filter than repair a non-removable digital camera lens.)

One important piece of equipment that you should have so you can properly maintain your camera is a way of cleaning the lens. Digital cameras really push the optical technology to the limits. Have you noticed that the lenses aren’t very large? The only things that haven’t changed in size are the dust particles that land on your lens. This means that any dust on the lens will lessen the optical capabilities a lot more with digital cameras than 35mm film cameras. Compressed air, microfiber cleaning cloths made for lenses and anti-static brushes all will help keep your lens clean. So make sure you have a means of cleaning your lens and camera—and remember to use it. A clean viewfinder and LCD wouldn’t hurt either.

What’s the best way to get my pictures out of my camera?

Digital cameras usually come with a cable (most likely USB) to hook up to a computer. That cable, together with the software that also comes with the camera, should enable you to download all of the images into your computer.

While this process works if the software is properly installed, there can be some drawbacks. You’ll end up using up the charge in your battery while downloading images. And if you change computers or upgrade operating systems, you might need to reinstall your software. You have to always keep a cable handy to connect your camera, then find a convenient place for the camera while it downloads image files. And using the camera is often slower than the next option.

A media card reader is an easy hookup to your computer. Simply connect the cable between the card reader and computer, then install any necessary reader drivers. Since most card readers are already supported in Windows XP and Mac OS X operating systems, you might not even have to install the drivers. You remove the memory card from the camera, just like unloading a film cassette, slide your media card into the card reader and download your images directly from the card to your computer. Most of these readers are lightweight, easily transportable and almost as easy to use as the old floppy disks. They also come in different types of connections—FireWire and USB 2.0 can be very fast.

If you’re not trying to get your pictures to your computer, but merely want to view them, there also are card readers that hook up to television monitors so that you can have a digital slideshow right in your living room.

Where is the best place to store all of these pictures?

At first thought, you might consider just storing all of your images on your hard drive. While hard drives are getting bigger and cheaper, image sizes are getter larger, too. As you download more and more images, your drive will eventually become full. And even worse, all of your “digital negatives” could be lost if your hard drive fails.

Your best bet is to offload your images to a more permanent storage medium such as a CD-R or DVD. Both of these optical media are capable of stockpiling a large quantity of images. DVDs can store more than seven times the capacity of a CD-R. Use quality media—not the cheapest on the store shelves. It does make a difference.