Digital Cameras - All hype or worth a look?
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Have you noticed how newly hyped photo formats are trumpeted then disappear as fast as they arrived? 
We had Disc cameras in the 1980s, APS in the 1990s and now we've got digital photography. 

So is digital photography another fad?  Personally I don't think so. 

A year ago I bought a Fuji 1200 - which was the cheapest good camera with an LCD.  Since then I have used it for business and pleasure and it has become one of my favourite toys!

The Fuji 1200 isn't easily to get any more - these are the most popular cameras currently available:

In the news  & under £40 Digital Dream L'Espion Click here for more info or to order	Better resolution  & still under £40 SiPix Blink Ultra Compact Click here for more info or to order
Great all rounder under £170 Fuji FinePix A201 Click here for more info or to order	Top notch quality - £460 Canon Powershot S30 Click here for more info or to order

What's so good about it?

No paying out for developing, no waiting for the pictures and then no need to fight with the scanner - you save time and hassle. 

It took a short while to throw off the old 35mm mentality of being careful not to waste film - "you'll only have to pay for the developing". Obviously not relevant with digitals - but it's difficult to change the way you think.

Basically as soon as I got going I loved it. Reasons why:

• The LCD screen on the back means you can frame your shot exactly before you take the picture. You can see the composition exactly as it will come out. This helps me take much better pictures. 

• As soon as you get home you can download onto your PC and view the pictures on your screen. 

• You can delete the bad photos.

• You can improve the good ones. You can crop, change the brightness/colour and remove items you don't want in the photo (telegraph poles, aerials etc...)

• You store them on your PC or you can print them out. (you don't have piles of mediocre old photos lying round the house)

• If your really pleased with a photo you can print 20 copies and send to your family and friends! (Avoiding those exorbitant fees for extra copies of individual prints) 

• You can do what the professionals do - take 20 pictures where you would usually have taken 1 - just keep the best shot(s) and delete the rest.

Good things about Digital Cameras
These are the benefits:

• Quick results 

• Better composition of pictures

• Easy to duplicate

• Save on processing costs

• Easy to send via email or publish on the internet

Things to watch out for
There are always things to watch out for. These are the main ones:

• Make sure your PC is up to the job - most cameras connect via USB ports - do you have one?

• Cheaper cameras don't have a LCD display - I'd always pay the extra for the LCD.

• Image size. 640 x 480 is great for photos on screen and small prints will look OK. Most cameras with 1 mega pixels or more will produce excellent results - on screen or on print (up to A5 or even A4 size).

• Batteries can run down quite quickly (have spares available)

Which camera would I go for now?
I wouldn't go too mad. With all new technology things move very fast. In a year or two the cameras available will probably be better and cheaper - but it would be a shame to hold off entirely until then. So  I'd get one now - but closer to the budget end than the professional end of the market.

Personally I'd buy a newer version of the camera I got last year. This new Fuji FinePix A201 includes a USB interface as standard, has nearly twice the resolution of my old 1200 and comes with a good array of free software. 

It can also be purchased from Amazon at an excellent discount.

Have fun!

Fuji FinePix A201 Digital Camera [2MP]
	This is a great camera - and a fantastic bargain at less than £170. 2 mega pixels means great image quality (both on screen and in print). It comes with 16mb of memory and USB cables to connect to your PC. See the reviews of other users. Click here for more info or to order