Is Your Digital Camera Compatible With Your Computer?
By Doug Rogers, Fri Dec 9th

So you recently bought a digital camera or perhaps yourthinking about it. And perhaps you may be wondering how manypictures will your computer hold? First you need to answer a fewquestions to come to an accurate conclusion. First, how big isyour hard drive and how much free space does it currently have?You can find the answer to that question by first left-clickingon "My Computer:" Right-click on "C drive." A menu shouldappear. Left-click on "Properties." A pie chart should bedisplayed that will show you the size of the hard drive and howmuch of the disk drive is free. Your next step is too know howmany mega pixels does your camera have? A pixel is a lightsensing cell on the image pickup device. The higher number ofpixels, the higher the resolution or picture quality of thecamera. A higher pixel number will also require more storagespace in your camera and computer for a picture. How muchstorage does each picture need? If you have a 2M pixel camera, ahigh resolution picture will require storage in the range of500kb. Two 500 kb pictures would occupy 1 MB. If that onepicture requires 500kB of storage, you should be able to store2000 pictures of that size in 1 gigabyte of disk space. Iusually store my pictures in one folder in my computer called“Camera Pics” and then create sub-folders within that folderwith different names depending on the occasion the pictures weretaken at for easy reference later on. Most camera manufacturerswill provide software to allow you to transfer and edit picturesfrom your camera. But some of that software is not the easiestto install and operate. There are a few ways to do the transferwithout the camera software. If your camera has a memory card,you can buy a memory card reader and use it to read the picturesfrom your camera. The memory card reader plugs into a free USBconnector on your computer. When you plug a memory card into thememory reader, you should notice a new hard drive on "MyComputer." Your computer will consider the memory device to be ahard drive and will allow you to manage pictures as if they werefiles on a hard drive. Many new are directly

supportedby Microsoft XP If you plug a USB cable into the camera and aUSB slot on the computer, you might discover that your computerknows how to read the pictures off the camera. Digital camerasoffer an economical way to get into photography. After you payfor the camera, it doesn't cost anything to take pictures. Youjust need a computer to allow you to view and save yourpictures. After you have saved a bunch of pictures in yourcomputer, I suggest you to transfer them to a CD or DVD. If youdo not, someday you may lose all your pictures if your computerever crashes. One other thing you need to be aware of is thatolder computers will have a hard time working the largemegapixel that are being produced today. If you have anolder computer and go out and buy yourself a 8 or 10 megapixelcamera, you may suddenly find you that you may have to buy a newcomputer too, or at least upgrade the one you have. The heftypicture files that are created by these large megapixel camerasuse a tremendous amount of computer memory and can cause anincompatible computer a lot of problems. The average needs ofmost people really do not require a large megapixel digitalcamera unless you plan on printing large photos. So it is bestto keep this general rule in mind when considering a digitalcamera. A typical 2-megapixel camera will produce a very good 4x 6 inch image using a typical desktop color inkjet printer.With a 4 -megapixel camera, you can turn out a very good 8 x 10print, which is the largest print anyone who is not aprofessional is likely to need.

About the author:Doug Rogers has worked as a freelance photographer for the past25 years in various fields of photography. In the past two yearshe has become an avid and devoted fan of digital photography.For tips on better digital photography and the latest reviews onthe newest digital equipment that hits the market, Subscribe tohis monthly Newsletter “The View Finder” athttp://www.best-digital-cameras-review.com