What to look for in a digital camera:
Automatic focus: At a minimum you must have auto focus.  We had one digital camera without it.  The results were not good.  We ended up taking the camera back because about half of the pictures were blurry or of poor quality.

To zoom or not to zoom: My last 2 cameras have had a 10x optical zoom.  You cannot beat optical zoom.  Forget digital zoom all it does is mathematically tries to zoom in and you end up with a blurry picture.  Below you will find three pictures of the the same light house that I zoomed in from the exact same position on the beach.  There is no way you could do this and get this type of quality from digital zoom.  3x optical zoom is a minimum that you need.

Getting pictures out of your camera: Your camera usually comes with a USB cord to down load the pictures to your computer.  My own problem with this is that it tends to take a longer time and sometimes it chews up the battery.  I prefer to use a separate card reader.  At this time I am using a Secure Digital card reader. 

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Rechargeable batteries for you digital camera:  I like to shoot a lot of digital pictures.  One of the more expensive parts about shooting digital pictures is the batteries for the camera.  All of my cameras will operate on a standard AA battery which is great because they are universally available around the world.  However, I like to use rechargeable AA batteries.  I typically can get around 300 pictures out of one charge.  I only shoot pictures through the view finder and not through the LCD screen.  The LCD screen can really chew up the battery.  The investment for rechargeable batteries is a little higher however it is really worth the investment.  I use the POWERhaus 2100 mAH charging system.  It came with my camera and it really works out great because you the size of the charger is small so it fits in my camera bag very easily.

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Printing Digital Photos:
You can go ahead and try to photo of  your digital pictures at home however, your really can't beat the quality or price that you will receive if you take your pictures into a store for actual photo developing.  My favorite location is Sam's Club.  Sam's has one hour process and it is only 17 cents per 4x6 print.  I tried to print them at home.  Special photo paper, $80 in ink cartridges, several mistakes latter and I still wasn't happy with the quality that I could produce at home.

Additionally, when you take your pictures in for printing you can do more than just get 4x6 prints.  You can have a picture made into a Christmas car, a coffee mug, calendars, etc.

How do you get your pictures to the store: So now you have all these digital pictures on your camera or on your computer and you want to take them to the store.  How do you do it?  Most stores that develop digital pictures have a kiosk that directly accepts most popular types of digital media including SD memory, xD memory, Smart Media, Compact flash, memory sticks. 

Other digital print methods:  If you don't feel like taking your digital pictures to the store you can up load them to and online print service.  I currently use Wal-Mart.  They have a really easy site to use and their shipping is always reasonable.

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Viewing your digital pictures:
Are you tired of having everyone standing behind you when you want to show them your pictures from your last trip. There are several ways to show your digital picture directly on your TV. It is really easy and is just like the old slide shows you use to have when you were a kid.

San Disk Digital Photo Viewer:  I purchased a digital photo viewer which allows me to play my digital photos directly from my memory chip to my TV. It comes with a remote control that allows you to pause the pictures, zoom in, rotate. It really is one of the the best way to share your pictures.   Buy this item now!

 

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Wireless Media Adapter: The Linksys Wireless-B Media Adapter lets you bring the digital music and pictures stored on your computer to your Home Entertainment Center, without running cables through the house. Using a wireless connection, the Media Adapter displays your digital photographs on the TV for the whole family to enjoy. And your digital music collection is finally freed from those little computer speakers and can play in full glory through your stereo system. The price on these have really come down recently.  Right now you can buy them for as low as $59.99 and this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.   Buy this item now!