Hardware, software, and other accessories

In addition to the camera itself, digital photography involves some peripheral hardware and software, not the least of which is a fairly powerful computer for viewing, storing, editing, and printing your images. You need a machine with a robust processor, at least 256MB of RAM, and a big hard drive with lots of empty storage space. The least you can expect to spend on such a system is about $400.

Getting your images from computer to paper requires an additional investment. If you have your pictures printed at a retail photofinishing lab, the cost per print is equal to or sometimes lower than what you pay for film prints. For do-it-yourself printing, printer costs range from about $80 to $700, but you don't need to buy at the high end of that spectrum to get good print quality. Most manufacturers use the same print engine in their low-priced photo printers as they do in their top-of-the-line products, so you can get really great results at a reasonable price. Higher-priced models offer faster output and additional features such as networking capabilities, the option to print directly from a camera memory card, a built-in monitor for previewing images, and the ability to output very large prints.

In addition, you need to factor in the cost of image-editing software, image storage and transfer devices, special paper for printing your photos, camera batteries, and other peripherals. If you're a real photography buff, you may also want to buy special lenses, lights, a tripod, and some other accessories.

Nope, a digital darkroom isn't cheap. Then again, neither is traditional film photography, if you're a serious photographer. And when you consider all the benefits of digital imagery, especially if you do business nationally or internationally, justifying the expense isn't all that difficult. But just in case you're getting queasy, look in Chapters 3, 4, and 9 for more details on the various components involved in digital photography - plus some tips on how to cut budgetary corners.

Memory cards

Most digital cameras record pictures on removable memory cards, which are similar to the floppy disks that you may use with your computer. When you fill up the card with pictures, you have to delete some pictures or transfer them to your computer before you can continue shooting.

Memory cards used to be terribly expensive. In the first years of digital photography, you could spend as much as $20 per megabyte (MB) of memory. Thankfully, memory card prices have plummeted recently, and you now can buy a 2GB memory card for about $15.

How many pictures you can fit into that 2GB depends on camera resolution and image file format, two subjects that you can explore in the next two chapters.

Regardless, you can strike the cost of memory cards from your list of concerns. You won't spend any more than you would on film and processing to produce an equivalent number of traditional prints. And you can reuse memory cards as many times as you want, making them an even bigger bargain when compared to film.

Cameras

Today's digital cameras range from inexpensive point-and-shoot models for casual users to $1,500-and-up pro-sumer models that offer the high-end photography controls demanded by advanced photo enthusiasts and professional photographers.

You can get a bare-bones camera for less than $40. But models in this price range produce very low-resolution images, suitable for Web pictures and other on-screen uses only. They usually also lack some important convenience features, such as removable image storage and a monitor for reviewing pictures.

Expect to spend $70 and up for a camera that can generate quality prints and includes a flash, LCD monitor, removable storage, and other features that you'll want if you plan to use your camera on a regular basis. As you move up the price spectrum, you get higher resolution, which means that you can print larger pictures; you also typically get better quality optics, a zoom lens, and advanced features such as manual shutter speed and aperture control. Chapter 3 helps you figure out just how much camera you need.

Film? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Film!

As shown in Figure 1-1, digital cameras come in all shapes and sizes. (You can see additional cameras throughout the next several chapters.) But although designs and features differ from model to model, all digital cameras are created to accomplish the same goal: to simplify the process of creating digital images.

Figure 1-1: These models from Nikon, Olympus, Kodak, Fujifilm, and HP illustrate the variety of digital cameras.

When I speak of a digital image, Iím referring to a picture that you can view and edit on a computer. Digital images, like anything else you see on your computer screen, are nothing more than bits of electronic data. Your computer analyzes that data and displays the image on-screen. (For a detailed look at how digital images work, see Chapter 2.)

Digital images are nothing new - people have been creating and editing digital pictures using such programs as Adobe Photoshop for years. But until the advent of digital cameras, getting a stunning sunset scene or an endearing baby picture into digital form required some time and effort. After shooting the picture with a film camera, you had to get the film developed and then have the photographic print or slide digitized (that is, converted to a computer image) using a piece of equipment known as a scanner. Assuming that you weren't well-off enough to have a darkroom and a scanner in the east wing of your mansion, this process could take several days and involve several middlemen and associated middleman costs.

Digital cameras provide an easier, more convenient option. While traditional cameras capture images on film, digital cameras record what they see using computer chips and digital storage devices, creating images that you can immediately access on your computer. No film, film processing, or scanning is involved - you press the shutter button, and voila: You have a digital image. To use the image, you simply transfer it from your camera to the computer, which you can do in a variety of ways. With the latest digital cameras, you can send your pictures directly to a photo printer - you don't even need a computer!

Filmless Fun, Facts, and Fiction

In This Chapter

• Understanding the differences between digital cameras and film cameras
• Discovering some great uses for digital cameras
• Comparing scanners and digital cameras
• Assessing the pros and cons of digital photography
• Calculating the impact on your wallet

I love hanging out in computer stores. I'm not a major geek - not that there's anything wrong with that - I just enjoy seeing what new gadgets I may be able to justify as tax write-offs.

You can imagine my delight, then, when digital cameras began showing up on the store shelves at a price that even my meager budget could handle. Here was a device that not only offered time and energy savings for my business but, at the same time, was a really cool toy for entertaining friends, family, and any strangers I could corral on the street.

If you, too, have decided that the time is right to join the growing ranks of digital photographers, I'd like to offer a hearty "way to go!" - but also a little word of caution. Before you hand over your money, be sure that you understand how this new technology works - and don't rely on the salesperson in your local electronics or computer superstore to fill you in. From what Iíve observed, many salespeople don't fully understand digital photography. As a result, they may steer you toward a camera that may be perfect for someone else but doesn't meet your needs.

Nothing's worse than a new toy, er, business investment that doesn't live up to your expectations. Remember how you felt when the plastic action figure that flew around the room in the TV commercial just stood there doing nothing after you dug it out of the cereal box? To make sure that you don't experience the same letdown with a digital camera, this chapter sorts out the facts from the fiction, explaining the pros and cons of digital imagery in general and digital cameras in particular.